I am no historian at all, I suppose that one cannot dispute the facts Putin mentions at length to support his view of the history of the relations between Ukraine and Russia, he is more or less right there. However, not a word about the “Great” Catherine who erased the Hetmanate : is he right here? Not a word about the serfdom imposed upon Ukraine : is he right to omit it ? These and other measures “from Moskow” gradually reduced and eventually eradicated not only the spirit of freedom but some essential individual freedoms which “they” down there in the South enjoyed, unlike those up there in the North. As, if not more important, not a word about an essential, yes essential trait of those easy-to-condemn movements by Bandera, Skoropadsky, Petlioura and the likes, I mean their hatred of bolchevism. Putin, here, is unsurprisingly a victim of the ideology which still overwhelmingly permeates almost every single Russian. He can obviously not extirpate himself from seeing all things from “the-communist-system-was- great-after-all” mentality. How could he, knowing where he comes from. He can’t help it. Who in Russia could understand, appreciate, let alone support that the major target, the fundamental original aim of independant Ukraine (in 1917 and later years) was to oppose not Russia, but communism? Who on earth knows, understands that bolshevism (Marxism, Leninism, call it whatever you like) was and is THE evil and that eradicating it and its symbols is a most necessary and noble achievement ? Who? I will tell you who : Ukraine! She has as you no doubt know enforced her law to eliminate each and every communist naming or symbol. Of course, Russian authorities (and people) still stick to their stubborn interpretation that the law is primarily anti-Russian – Don’t give credit where it is due ? That, BTW, would be an excellent first good step to reconcile Russia and Ukraine : the former should just do the same thing, i.e. immediate and total eradication of each and every street, avenue, square, you name it, bearing the [not enough] hated name of, just, Stalin and Lenin (the rest would follow). What a challenge!…