
The one map you need to understand Ukraine’s crisis - MaysonL
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/01/24/this-is-the-one-map-you-need-to-understand-ukraines-crisis/
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vdaniuk
This is map is outdated, the situation is changing rapidly. There are now more
than 10 government centers occupied by protesters. Mass protests are occurring
nearly in all regions of Ukraine.

BTW, good news! "Dictatorship laws" were repealed 5 minutes ago at the time of
writing of this comment.

~~~
mathattack
The maps were very oversimplified too. It's too bad this story is being under-
reported. I think it's more than a "Red and blue states with different
languages" situation. It could be a civil war, or national split, no?

~~~
vdaniuk
No, no civil war possible. The reason is quite simple. Current government has
support, but its very passive, while anti-government protestors are extremely
active and self-organizing. It is really people vs. government, even if some
support government.

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absherwin
Imagine that the President of this divided country allocated four times as
much spending per capita to his political base and his son had earned hundreds
of millions during his time in office.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych#Consolidation...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych#Consolidation_of_family_power)

~~~
lostlogin
Foreigners here, and Bush junior immediately came to mind. It isn't a straight
parallel, but the pork was there, and the cronies were paid.

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Sniffnoy
This map is confusing; it uses three shades of blue, two of which represent
land and one of which represents water. I had to stare at both the key and an
ordinary map of Ukraine for a minute in order to process what I was seeing.

~~~
YokoZar
The text of the article says he won dark blue by 70%+, but the key in the map
says by a 20% margin (which would imply 60-40). Which is it?

~~~
vacri
In voting, that 20% is called a swing - it would take a swing of that much to
lose the vote. The author's called it a margin here, but it's the same concept
- it takes 20% of the vote to move to change the incumbent, not 40%.

Assuming, of course, a two-party system.

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guard-of-terra
This map looks old. Recent maps show much wider area of protests and
takeovers.

[http://cs310221.vk.me/v310221807/6c83/jB9ZgNkuxUA.jpg](http://cs310221.vk.me/v310221807/6c83/jB9ZgNkuxUA.jpg)
Can't find translated one atm.

~~~
gpvos
Try Wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan#Protests_across_Ukr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan#Protests_across_Ukraine)

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BrandonMarc
Can the map tell me why this guy's wearing a pasta strainer for a hat?

[http://twitter.com/JohnPugh/status/426369689216745472/photo/...](http://twitter.com/JohnPugh/status/426369689216745472/photo/1)

The riot gear I understand. The other, not so much.

~~~
adamt
The government banned people from wearing any form of headgear (eg
masks/blalaclavas) during protests. Some protestors have been wearing silly
things in their heads as a form of humorous defiance.

~~~
throwaway_yy2Di
I just looked it up, and it's pretty much the same law all over Europe. Oddly
it's much harsher in e.g. Germany (top penalty, 1 year prison) than Ukraine
(15 days).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-
mask_laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-mask_laws)

(Not a commentary on Ukraine; just curiosity).

~~~
brazzy
The German law was introduced in 1985 by the conservative Kohl government; it
was very controversial at the time but is not much discussed now, perhaps
because police and courts are rather lenient in enforcing it. I've never heard
of a case where it actually led to a prison sentence.

~~~
JackFr
Many localities in the US have similar laws. Not really contrioversial b/c in
many cases, they were specifically targeted at the Ku Klux Klan. If you see
any recent (past 50 years) of Klan marches, you'll see they have to wear
modified hoods which show their faces.

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saym
This article helped me understand the conflict in ways I hadn't before.

My constructive critique: The analogy of red states and blue states to
Ukrainian language and Russian language regions doesn't fit entirely.

A state is red or blue with 51% of the vote. these regions have a much larger
gap between majority and minority opinion by region.

~~~
bluekeybox
The dividing line roughly corresponds to the spread of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth at its peak in the 1600s:
[http://www.conflicts.rem33.com/images/deut/EU1559.jpg](http://www.conflicts.rem33.com/images/deut/EU1559.jpg)

In other words, one could argue that the root of the conflict is a cultural
clash between Polonized Ukrainians vs Russified Ukrainians.

~~~
Shtirlic
Correct, during USSR era it was calm, but now started to burn again.

~~~
bluekeybox
A little wrong to look that way though since (a) it was under USSR that the
country got its current borders and shape on the map, and (b) the actual issue
over which the conflict is going on is due to USSR-like foreign policy
doctrine of Putin's Russia.

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JackFr
Can the "One map to ..." thing please end?

It feels one step away fro "One weird to trick to ..."

~~~
streptomycin
It'll end when it stops getting more clicks than other types of titles. If
anything, it'll probably become more common before that happens. You see it
all over blogs like this one, but a lot of the traditional mainstream media
hasn't caught on to this type of optimization. Just wait until every headline
on the front page of the NY Times starts like this...

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mikro2nd
OT: Hating on this website that hijacks my browser's "Back" keyboard binding
to take me to an endless succession of articles of absolutely no interest to
me.

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elnate
If my history included the Holodomor, I'd be shy of associating with Russia
too.

~~~
oddx
Actually regions harmed by mass famine in 32 and 33 are mostly pro-Russia, and
most against-Russia regions weren't part of USSR at that time.

~~~
elnate
I did not know that. Could it be that is because they were depopulated of
Ukranians and enthic Russians were moved in to replace them?

~~~
egao1980
Check that:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine)
Basically South and East of Ukraine were not inhabited by Ukrainians, but
colonized by Russian Empire - Odessa, Nikolayev, Crimea. And by the way,
Holodomor advocates usually forget to mention that many more Russian and
Kazakh people died during that famine and it was not specifically 'targeting'
Ukrainians -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1932%E2%80%931...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1932%E2%80%931933)

~~~
incosta
I guess this is the reason they use a Ukrainian word 'Holodomor' for it?

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doug1001
I have always wondered if Ukraine is really two countries. For instance, in
the West (west of Kyiv), Ukrainian is spoken, people there can certainly speak
Russian but they don't like to and they proudly refer to themselves as
Ukrainians--land of Gogol, Shevchenko, and the Cossacks. Ukrainian is the only
"official" language of Ukraine, though a couple of years ago, The eastern
Ukrainian city, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine's 4th largest city and it's industrial
heart, declared Russian as its official language. Similarly.

By contrast, in the East, many can't speak Ukrainian at all. Most refer to
themselves as Russian. The West is agriculture; the East has mining and heavy
industry and the Naval Base.

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lcedp
It's not that simple, guys. A more detailed map updated few hours ago
[https://pp.vk.me/c424218/v424218475/a161/yp73T93Y_l0.jpg](https://pp.vk.me/c424218/v424218475/a161/yp73T93Y_l0.jpg)

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randomafrican
One quick fact: the root of the word Ukraine is a word meaning "border".

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xiadzpl
The parts where the heaviest protests take place correlate with the pre-WW II
Polish borders:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curzon_Line](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curzon_Line)

Being from Poland I wish our politicians tried to use this situation as an
opportunity to re-annex western part of Ukraine. Maybe not entire half of it,
but f.eg. Lvov used to be a beautiful Polish city before the war.

~~~
bombarolo
... and an Austrian city long before that

~~~
solyanyk
... and Ukrainian (technically Ruthenian) city long before that. [1]

So, xiadzpl, don't hold your breath. [2]

1\.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv#History](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv#History)

2\.
[http://http2.github.io/http2-spec/#GTFO](http://http2.github.io/http2-spec/#GTFO)

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dschiptsov
Rather one word - "pipelines".

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twobits
"The one X you need to understand Y", written by Z.

The one thing you actually need to understand is: How much do you trust Z?

Who are they, what do they represent, what are their interests, what are their
motives, ..? Generally, follow the money.

