Hope for Ukraine?

For all you interested in the current situation in Ukraine, it's not good, but it's not horrific, yet.
Ukraine's biggest problem is that the people put up with way too much crap from their goverment. The government of Ukraine are a bunch of liars, they don't do anything for the country because they are too busy jockeying for power. Because with power comes riches. Whoever is in power can take more land, more factories and more of everything. And that is what is happening right now.

Inflation is at 25% or so, so the economy is taking a hit just like the rest of the world. When we came to Ukraine, we could change 1$ for about 4.50grv. (hryvnia is the Ukrainian currency). Now we can change 1$ for 5.80grv. Huge change. This is good for us because we are supported in $'s. But it's not good for the middle class Ukrainians who are payed in hryvnia.
See the prices are escalating while the hryvnia is falling creating the wild inflation and making it a little crazy over here. People are worried and th president's latest moves haven't helped that worry. Here's the scoop.

Victor Yushenko, the president of Ukraine, for the 3rd time in 3 years fired the parlaiment. What does this mean, was it the right thing to do, I'm not sure. What it does mean though is that there is no working government right now in the country, which in turn means nothing is getting done. The president and the prime minister (Yulia Tymoshenko) just cant seem to get along. There are alot of underlying factors involved in this. The main one I see is that Yulia is trying to buy votes and get the president out so that she can run for power in 2010, thus making her the president of Ukraine. The lower Yushenkos rating, the better chance she has to become president. Yushenko has ratings in the single digits right now, so i don't see him having a chance to win presidency anyway.

Another reason for Yushenko and Yulia's fighting is Russia. Yulia didn't back Georgia during the conflict and the president did, as a matter of fact, Yulia remained completely silent during the whole conflict. Yushenko saw this and accused her of treason because she is siding with Russia, which i think is partly true. Yulia used to be against Russia even moreso than Yushenko a few years back, and now all of a sudden she is for building closer ties with Russia? Seems kind of fishy to me.
I personally think that Russia is backing Yulia for president in 2010 and will do anything to get her in. Remember the 2004 revolution in Ukraine, that was Russia who picked Yanukovych (the guy who got in because of corrupt voting). Mr. Putin even came to Ukraine to stand with him several months before the elections, where does that happen anywhere else in the world?
So you see there is a conflict of interest. Yushenko wants to break away from Russia, he wants the Russian Navy to leave the Crimean penninsula (i'll explain later) and he wants to join NATO. Yulia wants to build closer ties with Russia and seems quiet about the NATO issue. In my mind, Yushenko is the better choice here, Yulia seems to nuts and power-crazy to run this country.

So with the Russian Navy in Crimea. In 2017 Russia's Navy contract with Ukraine will expire. The contract will either be extended or the Russian Navy will have to leave. The president and the prime minister do agree that the Russians have to leave, Praise God they agree on this, so far anyway. That is why many people are concerned about another war in this region, much like in Georgia. They think that Russia will stop at nothing to get Crimea back. Crimea is a republic of Ukraine that Krushev gave to Ukraine during the Soviet Union, I think in the 60's maybe, not sure, but anyway he gave it to Ukraine as a sign of good faith. Russia doesn't consider that gift legal, they say Crimea will always be Russia's. They have even gone so far as to start handing our passports to Ukrainian citizens living there. This is the exact same thing they did in Georgia, and then they had justification to start the war with Georgia, "we are protecting our citizens". Mark my words, Ukraine will be the next Georgia, sooner or later. 90% of the people living in the Crimea want to be with Russia. On independence day in Ukraine the Russian ships returned to the Crimean port after the war with Georgia. Instead of celebrating Ukraine's independence day, certain Ukrainians in Crimea had a celebration welcoming back the Russian ships. The ships pulled into Ukrainian territory to the sight of Ukrainian citizens waving Russian flags, praising them for the war with Georgia, that's sick. I understand them in a sense. I mean afterall the media is controlled by Russia there. There are no Ukrainian channels in Crimea, at leat very few. My friend told me that all they show on TV every night is how great Putin is in the news and then it is followed by war movies, showing Russia's might as a superpower. If I watched that crap and lies every night I'd think Russia is great to. So why don't they just go to Russia? Good question. It's the territory they want, same as in Georgia. Russia is expanding it's territory once again and Crimea is key to it's greater plan for world recognition as a the only superpower. Afterall even Mr. Putin told Mr. Bush, "Ukraine is merely a territory". Pretty strong signal there from the Russian Czar. So i think your going to see more and more Russian agression to take back the Crimea.
And I think we are going to see that politically before we see it militarily. Russia is meddling in Ukrainian politics, Mr. Putin is going to make sure that his man or woman gets into power so that somehow he can work a deal to get Crimea back. Afterall he controls all the natural gas up North and he controls 70% of Ukraines gas. That's a pretty big bargaining chip for Big Bad Brother Russia. Where is Europe in all this, they are just pawns, chickens who can't stand up to Russia because they are afraid that that precious natural gas that heats their big homes, will be cut off. I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know that God is in control and that Russia is playing a very dangerous game with Ukraine and the West.

I'll post new events as they occur.