NATO starts biggest ever drill in Poland amid security fears

[Monk06]

98. I know a Polish couple that immigrated to Canada in the late eighties

The Poles have no love for the Russians My friends ex girlfriend was raped in front of him by two state police before solidarność and the fall of the USSR

That being said the issue of Russian speaking people in Poland and the Ukraine are completely different

Russian speaking people, mostly on the eastern border with Ukraine, have national minority rights according to the Act of 6 January 2005 on national and ethnic minorities and on the regional languages

In the Ukraine the government eliminated the language rights and banned Russian speaking cit zens from running for political office Hence the revolt in that region supported and fought by Russian weapons and troops for sure

In the case of the Crimea, I'll let someone more knowledgeable than myself do the talking:

"Orlando Figes, author of Crimea: The Last Crusade, wrote last week:

Crimea was bound to be the focus of the Russian backlash against the Ukrainian revolution. ... For more than 20 years, ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its rule by Kiev has been a major source of Russian resentment – inside and outside Crimea – and a major thorn in Ukraine's relations with Russia.

The Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation – by which Russia rents its naval base at Sevastopol from the Ukrainian government – is so far-reaching in the rights it gives the Russians to exercise their military powers that it is seen by many in Ukraine to undermine the country's independence. In 2008 the Ukrainians said they would not renew the lease when it expired in 2017. But they buckled under the pressure of a gas-price hike and, in 2010, extended the Russian navy's lease until 2042."

The move by the NATO powers negotiate membership in the organization by the Ukraine led the Orange Nationalists to use NATO support as a way to push Russia out or the the Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea

Now it is arguable whether Russia has defendable interests in Donetsk and Luhansk but both regions have coastal access to the Sea of Azov and Russian speakers are the majority there, so draw your own conclusions.

The Crimea is an entirely different matter The Ukrainian nationalist want to close the Russian naval base at Sevastopol This has been the most important Black Sea base to the Russians since Catherine the Great

The Ukrainians were foolish for trying to end the lease to the base in Sevastopol

NATO and by that I mean the US is not interested in defending democracy in the Balkan states from Russian interference They want deprive Russia of warm water ports and ultimately access to the Mediterranean which the US Navy views as their territory