Whats really going on in The Ukraine

The protests in The Ukraine have been growing over time and most of us simply put it in the back of our minds.  The U.S. State Department however has put some interesting attention on it in the past few weeks driving the conflict forward.

First it is important to understand The Ukraine in a historical and Geographic sense.

The nation's name literally means 'Border' which is why it is called THE Ukraine.  There are two major groups in the country.  Those in the western third are Ukranian speaking and generally have closer ties to the E.U. community and the eastern third is Russian speaking with close ties to Moscow.  This should be no surprise.  Most people forget the Ukraine used to be a part of the Iron Curtain only two decades ago.  that is only a single generation.  So what is happening is partly based on historical ethnic/nationalist sentiment.

The other part is political and economical.  Politically Russia wants to keep close ties to the Ukraine to stop the increasing encroachment of the NATO alliance (which was formed to counter Soviet power and now Russian influence during the Cold War...which ostensibly is still on-going if you ask me).  The EU, where a vast majority of the member countries are NATO members or at least allies, is pushing for closer ties to the Ukraine and the current government in the Ukraine is resisting...preferring Moscow.

The Russian Federation is doing everything it can economically to buy support including massive natural gas price reductions for the Ukraine.  On the other side the EU/USA/NATO alliance is supporting the 'activists'/'protesters' at least on the diplomatic side including a senior official passing out cookies to them.  that in and of itself is hilarious because US diplomats are often referred to as cookie pushers from Harvard.  Of course Vicky here manages to avoid the Harvard part of the stereotype...but it isn't a subversion of the trope...more of a parallel where its might as well be the same thing.  Of course her part in the Benghazi cover-up and now showing up in the middle of the Ukraine-near-civil war makes one at least quirk an eyebrow at how one woman can keep popping up in areas at appear to be rapidly de-stabilizing.

At the same time Barack 'The Rock' Hussein Obama is warning the Ukrainian Govt (legitimately elected btw) to not use force against the so-called protesters.  My question would be...or else what?   Obviously it is a veiled threat of sanctions in the least and an armed intervention at worst under the guise of 'humanitarian assistance' or some such drivel.

So the answer to the question as to why this is happening is generally represented by Russian antipathy towards NATO and vice versa.  There are more specific reasons that entail trans-national corporate interests and EU expansion desires.  However it should be noted that there is likely a great deal of support for the protesters via operators from various intelligence agencies...or at least the assets that are distanced from the handlers that pass them messages and directives.

The protests have gone from chanting to gasoline bomb throwing, armory assaulting nigh-on-civil-war in the space of a couple weeks.  All of this is despite the government showing considerably more restraint than any in the United States would given similar levels of violence.  The only way that the government could be characterized as aggressive would be saying that...since it didn't simply give in to the mob of protesters...that alone is an aggressive act and...well you get the escalation almost purely one sided that we have today.

Its fun to watch from a distance...like a supernova.

Update:  Speaking of George Soros and his open society initiative...

Oh look a thinly veiled hit piece by Dana Milbank!

HERE

Step 1) Open with a false premise
Step 2) Offer a meaningless fact
Step 3) Brief Narrative
Step 4) Jealous projection of authors own ego upon his target
Step 5) Profit?