re: Will we look like fools if the administration keeps spouting off about Ukraine

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LSU Russian...



Very plausible. Few Americans understand the ethnic makeup of the Ukraine or the history of that part of Europe

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I've worked in Ukraine, from Odessa on the Black Sea which is heavily ethnic Russian, to Kiev which is about 50/50 Russian/Ukrainian and all the way to western Ukraine in Lviv, which is mostly ethnic Ukrainians and Poles.

So I speak from some experience working alongside and with the various ethnic groups there not from just reading a history book.

I speak Russian but not Ukrainian so when I was in Lviv, I had to be careful not to speak Russian. I forgot a couple of times and when I said a Russian word, I got some stern looks from the locals. I would apologize and they would forgive me and we'd move on.

On the other hand, when I worked in Odessa I spoke Russian with the locals. Most of them didn't know how to speak Ukrainian.

It's a bi-polar, schizophrenic country.

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I would add that Yulia Tymoshenko will probably "disappear" or suffer some kind of strange illness.

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She's already in prison after losing the Presidential election to Yanukovych the first time he was elected. She is reportedly ill and the EU has asked for her to be released to travel to Germany for treatment for her illness but Yanukovych won't allow her to be released.