Russia Supporters Storm Ukraine Government Buildings

[Igel]

48. One protest was illustrative.

There was a protest. A group of people leading the chants and cheers. And along the side of the square with the protest a long column of tour buses. In the west, it was a protest of several thousand people "in Donetsk." Next news iteration they were "from Donetsk." But the tour buses said otherwise. Bussed in. A lot were local, but the large cities are really mixed ethnically these days. Some of the villages and smaller towns are more Russian or more Ukrainian.


Last week's protest--I forget if it was in Luhansk or Donetsk--ended on schedule with a march to the train station where it broke up. A lot of people then climbed on board trains to go home.

The difference was in timing: One was night time, when the trains had stopped running. The other was early afternoon, before the last train to the 'burbs. (In central Europe most suburbs are overgrown villages.)

So, yeah, there was a protest of 3k people in Donetsk. But it was organized. Not hard. Cossacks can organize. Political parties can organize. And for 3k out of a population of a few million, it's really not hard. Esp. when the news has drummed up how much they're hated, how there are fascists that want to hurt Russians and, well, deprive them of their superior culture and legacy. You'll have trouble getting over what we'd call "racism." Think about telling a bunch of Latino-hating whites in Texas that the official language is going to be Spanish, with the threats that they'd all have to speak Spanish on the streets and you get the picture.