Because what Yanukovych is doing is very pro-Russian. In simplest terms Ukraine is facing a choice between Russia and the EU. Russia is obviously not too keen to lose Ukraine, since the Russian government and most Russian people consider Ukraine to be a part of Russia (or at least a Russian territory). The protesters are fighting for a more independent Ukraine, one not dependent on Russia for every political decision, and one that has more connections with the EU (in this case a trade agreement).
I noticed the same trend. If you see someone saying something against the protesters they likely identify as Russian in their profile or have a slavic name. It is unfortunate, since opinions are being formed on HN, and the few anti-Ukrainian comments are making their way to the top.
If you think that the people there are fighting for more connections with EU, you should really read more primary sources. (Also, put basic math together: Tjagnibok, his Svoboda and EU? In this reality?)
They simply do not want to bend over to oligarchs any more, it does not matter whether these oligarchs are leaning to Russia or EU. They are saying GTFO to _both_.
30% of Ukrainians are NOT in favour of the EU treaty, and happen to speak Russian as their first language. Not surprising Russians are not keen Ukraine to get separated from Russia either. But why is that unfortunate?
Also I hope you are not suggesting that opinions should be somehow filtered based on whether a poster has a Russian name.
> 30% of Ukrainians are NOT in favour of the EU treaty, and happen to speak Russian as their first language. Not surprising Russians are not keen Ukraine to get separated from Russia either. But why is that unfortunate?
Correct. I happen to be a Russian-speaking Ukrainian and I am much more in favor of Ukraine being more open to the west and breaking away from Russia, but I know that's not the only opinion. The fact that not everybody agrees is in my opinion unfortunate because Russia has no interest in investing in Ukraine's future.
> Also I hope you are not suggesting that opinions should be somehow filtered based on whether a poster has a Russian name.
Not in the slightest. I am suggesting that people who don't know much about the situation do their own research rather than trusting comments on the several stories that ended up on HN in the past few days. There is a lot of bias here, especially pro-Russian bias. I would like to see people not directly involved with the situation form their own opinions based on facts.
> Russia has no interest in investing in Ukraine's future.
Seems like it does, based on the bailout money it offered. Even then, Russia and (Eastern) Ukraine have strong cultural/historical/etc connections, so these issues are quite sensitive to many people, and should not be seen as an EU vs. "evil Putin" matter. Neither should one blame ordinary Russians for having a different opinion on this.
Him not signing them was pro-Russian. The EU treaty was ready to go, when Yanukovych suddenly turned around and refused to sign it. That was the pro-Russian move.
OK, you already provided clarification for his statement. Now it looks like you're being pedantic for no good reason or just trying to start shit with IgorPartola.
That it was pro-EU while going through the process of getting the treaty ready, but to snub it at the last minute for Putins favour is very very pro-Russian, if you will. Far more so than doing some paperwork, anyway.
Then maybe he's not a puppet but actually an actor who tries to extract bonuses from multiple parties by raising stakes?
I.e. get EU treaty ready to be signed, extract power from Russia based on the fear of this treaty going live. And then try to extract more power from EU based on the fear that Russians are overtaking.
I noticed the same trend. If you see someone saying something against the protesters they likely identify as Russian in their profile or have a slavic name. It is unfortunate, since opinions are being formed on HN, and the few anti-Ukrainian comments are making their way to the top.