signandsight.com: Why Ukraine has no place in the EU - by Richard Wagner

"Ukraine is firmly anchored in the Eurasian region that traditionally answers to Moscow. The cultural-historical fusion with Russia reaches deep into the past to the Kievan Rus,
the original formula of the East Slavic concept of state, as does the
Byzantine-Orthodox hold on mentality and society. The majority of the
population speaks Russian and geographically and geo-politically
speaking, the country has a number of non-European coordinates that are
indispensable to Russia: the Black Sea, Crimea, the Caucasus. The
Ukrainian economy is tightly bound up with its Russian counterpart, it
is reliant on Russian raw materials and energy resources, and is
organised along the same lines. The same goes for the political
structure of post-Soviet society which, in both countries relies on the
Byzantine habitus and the survival skills of Homo sovieticus.
Oligarchic interests and a bizarrely ad hoc party landscape define the
political climate in both Russia and Ukraine and no end of bold
"Orange" revolutionaries will be able to change this. They have
defended their honour, but they don't hold the political reins."

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