Okay, I looked into Igor Kolomoisky. First of all, the "taped phone call" thing has been a recurring issue, over and over, coming out of Russian intelligence. Having said that, that's a pretty wild phone call there. What can one say -- Russia, and more so Ukraine -- it's like a darn movie. It's unreal.
I know Latin American politics gets this crazy too. I guess really everywhere is like this. Middle east. China to an extent. There's some value, you know, to getting to being that "normal country like Poland." Euro norms and standards. Get away from all of these things. That's the goal. That's what a lot of ordinary Ukrainians wanted, when they wanted the EU.
I'll tell you, if Putin would have allowed it and the US / EU were willing, an American general could have gone in there with NATO and really sorted the place out. Do things the right way. Peacekeeping to get stability in the streets, oversee real elections, put in place real reforms to get the generational corruption out of there.
But that couldn't / didn't happen, and Kiev is stuck, in the middle of a civil war and yes there's some bad apples in that Kiev group.
There's a lot of bad apples in Ukraine. It's a wild place -- what was it years ago, one of their presidents or candidates got radiation poisoned? Did an oligarch do it, or was it Russia? I don't know. But it's crazy stuff.
So anyhow, what has gone on with the Kiev gov is that, absent real solid support coming from the West, they're continuing the old system of oligarchs and the same old thing. They placed oligarchs into regional governorships.
So the latest news is that Putin appears to be backing off Ukraine entirely. And so now this oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky, has a free hand to do what he wants. It's a messy situation, the central Kiev gov isn't strong enough to handle things, so they put the oligarchs in charge of regions -- a bit like an ancient Roman proconsul.
Here's some more on Igor Kolomoisky:
The turmoil in Libya comes on top of the crisis in Ukraine, which has entered a new phase. The feeling is that Russian president Vladimir Putin is no longer considering an invasion, and has even decided to, by and large, stop destabilizing eastern Ukraine.
With the coast now clear, Ukrainian oligarchs Rinat Akhmetov and Igor Kolomoisky have taken up arms against the pro-Russian militias who had seized control of major cities. With Putin’s decision to ease up, the oligarchs’ intervention is an attempt to decide who will profit from Ukraine’s new political system.As Quartz reported over the weekend, the participation of Akhmetov and Kolomoisky is a win for Kiev but also makes the shaky Ukrainian government dependent on their good will.
http://qz.com/210801/strongmen-in-libya-and-ukraine-are-spiking-global-oil-prices/
You'll agree with this Forbes article, Radon:
Now I read that article, and there are things in there that I know he's got a pro-Russia bias. He's a slavic studies professor. He paints the division between east and west ukraine as more than it actually is. This author sounds Russian to me.
From all the reading I've done, my conclusion is that there are Ukrainian speakers in east Ukraine too (obviously, my point is that the east isn't all ethnic Russian). And that, even among the Russian speakers in the East, they had been identifying mostly as Ukrainian (it's been a long time since the USSR). And this is especially true of younger Russian speakers.
This explains the polls that show even in the East, not even a majority of Russian speakers are for annexation or allowing regions to secede.
That Odessa clash between pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine -- I don't see anything that attributes that to the government or an oligarch. If I'm wrong, if I'm missing something, then post that.
But anyhow.. Ukraine is a mess.. the oligarchs are in charge.. the people don't like it and have always wanted an end to it.
You and me can differ on our opinions. I think if Ukraine gets on a EU track, then they will improve, because the oligarchial corruption they have isn't even compatible with the EU. The EU would rub off on them, eventually. They'd become like Poland, and that's not a bad thing at all.