They don't because they have tourism. That's pretty much all they have there.
the point is they don't live in mud-huts, their houses and infrastructure are better than on the other side of the border, doesn't matter why
The differences between Poland and Western Europe are still important. 'Experts' say it will take another 20-30 years for Poland to catch up with Western Europe. I guess that's a minimum. How about Ukraine? 100 years?
I'd say one more generation so yeah 20 years... 100 years for Ukraine?Nah, with the current technology certain advances happen very fast, it's the people's mentality that lags behind, in fact, paradoxically, infrastructural backwardness my actually play to a country's advantage as it can, at least theoretically, upgrade directly to the best bypassing more obsolete stages still in use elsewhere. I'd say 2 generations.
You're not taking into account what eastern Ukrainians want. The pro-EU are mainly found in western Ukraine
nope you're wrong, see Kharkiv, staunchly against Putin, pro EU. Due to the arm conflict the attitudes have polarized and now Russia is pretty much uniformly across the whole country seen as an enemy
Not my feeling. I found the EU powerless and very limited (and too divided).
Putin was counting on it, here I quote "Putin is calculated and assumed the EU would continue to talk of 'red lines' that would become meaningless. The same was after all true of the numerous 'red lines' issued and always ignored made towards Yanukovych over the incompatibility of his imprisonment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko with European values."
but now even the French government is changing its tune:
PARIS - The idea that the European Union - not Russia - would acquire two French Mistral-class helicopter carriers already sold to Moscow is gaining ground as the West adopted a ban against future arms deals to Russia, and the energy and financial sectors, analysts said.
defensenews.com/article/20140802/DEFREG01/308020013/Interest-Rises-EU-Acquisition-Mistrals-Sold-Russia?odyssey=nav%7Chead
If the EU were to make the move, there is the European Defence Agency (EDA), which has the pooling-and-sharing approach for the member states. That could be a financial system for acquiring military platforms, he said.
Point being EU, unexpectedly, did come together on this one.
Also, I'm still waiting for sanctions against Israel for murdering kids.
you and me both, what's your point anyway, now we talk Israel...? Anyways you do like to run around in circles so I'm just gonna repeat myself, regarding what sort of influence is more beneficial for Ukraine:
for me it's not a question of black-and-white comparison, rather a cool-headed and comprehensive pros and cons calculus in which Russia/Russian influence loses by quite a bit to its alternatives and people really do deserve better.
