"50,000 protest Crimea action in Moscow - AFP Saturday, Mar 15, 2014
MOSCOW - Around 50,000 people rallied in central Moscow Saturday in protest at Russia's intervention in Ukraine, a day before the Crimean peninsula votes on switching to Kremlin rule.
Waving both Ukrainian and Russian flags and shouting slogans heard during the anti-government protests in Kiev, the demonstrators urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull troops back from a Cold War-style confrontation.
University professor Yelena Orlova, 47, whose sign read "Ukraine is a sovereign state", said she did not expect the rally would change her government's position, but believed it was her duty to speak out.
"I don't agree with the policy of Putin," she told AFP. "I am against the annexation of Crimea. I think Russia should respect the borders of Ukraine." A huge column of people snaked along a central boulevard with a hotch-potch of flags and hand-written placards.
Kiev and its Western allies say the referendum is an illegal fig leaf for a land-grab by the Kremlin, which it accuses of trying to unilaterally re-draw the post WWII map of Europe."
So this is HOW some 'democracy' work! By referendum. The PEOPLE choose!
Lessons for me are:
1. if you are not united internally, you are prime target for outside influence and agitation!;
2. if you FAILed to balance the mix of your population, you run the risk of being ousted from within!;
3. let this be a lesson that when you are small and yet ambitiously thinking you can balance the mix of locals and foreigners who may become voters in your 'democracy', just make sure you truly understand the new citizens and that they do, and ARE, really understanding and embracing your country's values, norms, and way of life!
Enough said. Crimea will most like have a referendum results that the Russian government and the Russian-speaking Ukraine citizens wish for! Then the real question that need to be answered is: now what?
Waving both Ukrainian and Russian flags and shouting slogans heard during the anti-government protests in Kiev, the demonstrators urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull troops back from a Cold War-style confrontation.
University professor Yelena Orlova, 47, whose sign read "Ukraine is a sovereign state", said she did not expect the rally would change her government's position, but believed it was her duty to speak out.
"I don't agree with the policy of Putin," she told AFP. "I am against the annexation of Crimea. I think Russia should respect the borders of Ukraine." A huge column of people snaked along a central boulevard with a hotch-potch of flags and hand-written placards.
Kiev and its Western allies say the referendum is an illegal fig leaf for a land-grab by the Kremlin, which it accuses of trying to unilaterally re-draw the post WWII map of Europe."
So this is HOW some 'democracy' work! By referendum. The PEOPLE choose!
Lessons for me are:
1. if you are not united internally, you are prime target for outside influence and agitation!;
2. if you FAILed to balance the mix of your population, you run the risk of being ousted from within!;
3. let this be a lesson that when you are small and yet ambitiously thinking you can balance the mix of locals and foreigners who may become voters in your 'democracy', just make sure you truly understand the new citizens and that they do, and ARE, really understanding and embracing your country's values, norms, and way of life!
Enough said. Crimea will most like have a referendum results that the Russian government and the Russian-speaking Ukraine citizens wish for! Then the real question that need to be answered is: now what?
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