On what basis do you make this assertion?

I think it is an assumption based on Putin's propaganda, but one that isn't actually backed up by facts. Yes, they held a referendum but, as with the similar one held in Crimea, it was not recognised as valid anywhere other than in Russia, asked a heavily loaded question and the people voted under duress.

Independent polls taken at the same time indicated only around 18% of the people wanted the region to become Russian. The others wanted to remain part of Ukraine, some with a federated status, others fully integrated.

I fear you are swallowing propaganda. Even though you are right to fear what could be coming down the line in the east, I don't believe it has anything to do with the people's wishes there. This is 100% Putin's own agenda.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

While I didn't agree with the coup that happened in Ukraine I also didn't agree with Russia walking into the Crimea and just annexing it either.

However, I've looked for and didn't find your '18% of the people wanted the region to become Russian' poll so if you link me to that it would be interesting.

What I did find was the following:

Polling in 2008 by the Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies, found that 63.8% of Crimeans (76% of ethnic Russians, 55% of ethnic Ukrainians, and 14% of ethnic Crimean Tatars, respectively) would like Crimea to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.

On March 12 – 14, 2014, Germany's largest pollster, the GfK Group, conducted a survey with 600 respondents and found that 70.6% of Crimeans intended to vote for joining Russia.

Gallup conducted an immediate post-referendum survey of Ukraine and Crimea and published their results in April 2014. Gallup reported that, among the population of Crimea, 93.6% of ethnic Russians and 68.4% of ethnic Ukrainians believed the referendum result accurately represents the will of the Crimean people. Only 1.7% of ethnic Russians and 14.5% of ethnic Ukrainians living in Crimea thought that the referendum results didn't accurately reflect the views of the Crimean people.

[Link]

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

I honestly don't think you have been following what's happening.

Russia's economy, like the west's is suffering, however it's being re-routed. They are already making deals around the world, with India for example, for their resources....Also, their importance in farming resources are significant. I'm hoping that there are easy ways around that.

I think your view that green energy is going to take up the slack is about as realistic as Johnson's. The scale of what you are talking about is enormous.

A cold war is a disaster both militarily and economically. The living standards of everyone...but especially the poor and vulnerable are those who suffer over bad long term decisions.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

I'm no expert on these matters but from what I hear 83 percent of the world's energy relies upon oil and gas.

From that I have no problem with green energy being expanded but I do have a problem with it being relied upon.

Surely we need to be fracking.....We need to be building nuclear at affordable prices.

Why are our energy needs even something that's an issue? This is a fundamental of civilisational competence.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

That was my instinct too, but I heard a German politician raise a point I hadn't thought of earlier today. Which is that the way the Russians attacked Chernobyl ought to give us pause for thought. A missile attack on a nuclear facility could be a disaster, so whether, and how, we can build safe reactors is a really big question. If we can build safe command bunkers, it ought to be possible, but current designs don't look adequate.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

I can instantly see that the top poll references Ukrainians as a whole and not Crimea. That wasn't what I was saying.

Anyway like I said, I didn't agree with the coup but I also didn't agree with the annexation. Pretty much everything that's happened in the Ukraine has been from foreign meddling and pretty much for all its history as its a mixture of regional ethnic groups.

There's a family party today that we are hosting so I'm off to cook muffins and pancakes but I'll have a peep back later.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)