[zilean]

Russia is also considers itself (for a quite some hundreds of years) a successor to Byzantine Empire. That does not mean that they want, would or should take any land in that direction.

Ukraine is special not because Kiev has to be in Russia, but because a lot of the current Ukrainian land was for, again, some hundreds years Russian and have almost no sovereign history. That makes it easy to play by all sorts of powers and Government is really not the main one there. Just look at Alaska it never gets same attention. Or North Kazakhstan. Same would be with Ukraine in coming 50-100 years if they would be able to hold the country together.

[qaq]

"Or North Kazakhstan" :) you don't watch Russian news much do you?

[zilean]

I dont watch news much. But that doesn't stops me from getting Ukraine from all sorts of angles for a long time (you have to justify Crimea).

I dont get much about NK from anyone but some ultra-right aligned personalities (but i am also getting stuff about Alaska from them, so there is that).

[qaq]

There is no independent ultra-right it's just another face of the same ruling group. The things they declare are coordinated by Kremlin. The "crazy" talk about Ukraine that started even prior to 2004 by "ultra-right" leaders was just 1st phase of prep. I would strongly caution against dismissing their msg. because they are voiced by ultra-right.

[zilean]

> There is no independent ultra-right it's just another face of the same ruling group.

Cant agree. Also this is a slippery slope that could apply to western countries as well and we dont want to go there.

> The "crazy" talk about Ukraine that started even prior to 2004 by "ultra-right" leaders was just 1st phase of prep.

Again, Ukraine problematic is objective. Alaska and NK is not. Not from todays Russia perspective, not from population perspective, not even from historical perspective. You didnt need ultra-right to talk about Ukraine and many legitimate politicians spoke about that for a long time. If anything moving towards Iran and eating up Caucasus nations is making much more sense than messing with NK, Baltics, Sweden or whoever else is trying to justify their actions using Russia as a threat.

[qaq]

It's not a slippery slope if people are given access to resources, time on state owned TV stations, and hold positions of power they are part of Kremlin there are no alternative sources of power or resources.

[zilean]

Your view of how government work or sources of resources and power in the country and dynamics between the two is not something i can agree with.

In any case there is nothing state can do to please you: censoring specific types from accessing media is bad (and rest assured you would never know if they are ultra-right, libertarians or whoever they are from western media), allowing them is endorsing.