Quote Originally Posted by walrus View Post
you blame the US for funneling money into Ukraine while Russia was busy robbing the country. In the recent election, the separatists announced 96 percent of the people voted with them. Bullshit, when have ninety eight percent of people agreed with anything
In 1991 Yeltsin (Russia's leader at the time) voluntarily gave up Russian sovereignty over Crimea for the first time in history. The Crimean people were furious about this and the regional government organised a referendum. The exact same percentage (90 odd percent, whatever it was) voted in 1991 to remain part of Russia but Russia ignored the will of the people and handed it over to Ukraine. Rather than robbing Crimea, it'll cost Russia up to ten billion dollars a year to keep the lights on and pay the bills in Crimea. And Russia has been giving Ukraine in general billions of dollars of free gas for well over a decade now.

This part of the world has been crucial to energy markets since the Warsaw Pact fell apart. Part of my job since the same year, 1991, has been speculating on energy markets so I've been following what happens there for nearly quarter of a century now. This isn't something I suddenly started taking notice of when western media started covering it recently.