This Shows how much Congress Cares about you. Ukrainian delegation Says not Enough

originally posted by: rigel4

But why does Ukraine matter so much to Russia? Here is a breakdown.

Kiev: the birthplace of Russia

Ukraine’s move toward the Western bloc in the name of having a democratic state has made the Russian establishment feel betrayed because Kiev’s national identity and history is much more linked to Russia than Turkic states in Central Asia and Baltic states in eastern Europe, which were also part of the Soviets.

Moscow’s ruling establishment feels so emotional because the first Russian state called Kievan Rus was established in Kiev 12 centuries ago. Even the name of Russia originated in the name of this loose confederation of Eastern Slavic, Baltic and Finnic nations.

Rurik, the founding leader of the Kievan Rus dynasty, has been considered one of the godfathers of the Russian state. Interestingly, Rurik did not have Slavic origins, he had Viking blood in his veins.

We all need to understand that Putin sees the breakup of the old USSR as the worst event in the last 100 years, and he truly wants the old team back. Ukraine is the jewel of that desire as you stated above and I think he truly thought he could roll his tanks right into Kiev with little struggle and the people there would have cheered his name, but to his astonishment that didn't happen.

The reason why the Donbas region is so important is because it is the largest gas fields in all of Europe and every excuse to take it has that as the front runner that no one wants to talk about, help the poor Russians there and make 100 billion in the process... Not bad. Taking Ukraine would also give Russia a direct link to Europe to sell its energy with no real need for Nord Stream pipelines as those pesky Ukrainians would be under total control. Not to mentioned greater access to the Black sea. The reason why Putin doesn't want to see countries joining NATO is because HE WANTS THOSE COUNITRES BACK under his control, and so joining NATO would stop that. He can't take each one by one if they are in NATO. On the flip side NATO is zero threat to him because there is no way NATO would attack Russia for any reason in an offensive move, so they are 100% defensive. Maybe China might want Russia, but no one in EU wants it...they just want Russia to play nice and sell their energy to them.