Sunday, May 25, 2014

Ahead of Ukraine elections, a generational split on nationalism

KIEV — More than two decades after the Soviet Union’s collapse gave birth to an independent Ukraine, a new generation is coming of age just as a separatist crisis is threatening to split this country in two.
Unlike their elders, however, younger people here have no memory of Soviet life, and most see themselves, despite their divided country, as Ukrainian.

That view will undergo one of its first tests Sunday when citizens go to the polls in a presidential election that could determine Ukraine’s future as a sovereign nation.
Pro-Russian separatists in the rebellious east have pledged to stop the vote, and violent clashes have increased in recent days between those who look to the West and those who want to join Russia.

The starkest gap may be less geographical than generational: between Ukraine’s youth, who grew up seeing themselves as citizens of Ukraine, and older people whose formative years were stamped with the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union in a multiethnic federation dominated by the Russian language and Russian culture.

Many in the new generation of Ukrainians — most of whom, like their parents, switch fluidly between the Ukrainian and Russian languages — say the spirit of democracy, accountability and civic unity could counter the corruption that has plagued Ukraine since independence in 1991..........http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ahead-of-ukraine-elections-a-generational-split-on-nationalism/2014/05/24/3072c82f-8c34-475a-b26d-e19032f7d485_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage
24-25/5/14
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1 comment:

  1. According to recent reports, 284 polling stations are working in the Lugansk region in general....

    KIEV, May 25, 12:28 /ITAR-TASS/. In the Lugansk region, the Ukrainian presidential election voting is held only in two of the total 12 districts, head of the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) Mikhail Okhendovsky told reporters on Sunday.

    “In the Lugansk region the polling stations have opened only in two of the total 12 districts,” he said. According to Okhendovsky, the organisation of the election in Lugansk has failed.

    According to recent reports, 284 polling stations are working in the Lugansk region in general.
    http://en.itar-tass.com/world/733182

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