Is Russia's 'Novorossia' Dream Dead?

Pavel Gubarev, a separatist leader, speaks during a news conference in the eastern city of Donetsk.

Radio Free Europe: The Unraveling Of Moscow's 'Novorossia' Dream

The Kremlin’s project to create “Novorossia” in southern and eastern Ukraine and the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea was conducted in secrecy and haste in the first months of 2014.

Details of how that project rose and ultimately fell have been hard to come by. But Aleksandr, a Moscow businessman who asked that his identity not be revealed, had a front-row seat as an insider in Crimea and agreed to tell RFE/RL what became of the dream he still cherishes, despite the disenchantment of his months in Crimea.

“Russia lost its chance to create any ‘Novorossia’ on July 17 [2014], when the passenger airliner was shot down over territory held by the militants,” Aleksandr said during a recent interview in Moscow, in reference to the downing of Flight MH17 by a Russian-made, surface-to-air missile that killed 298 people and shocked the world. “After that, the idea of Novorossia was closed. So it was shut down and the war was soon frozen.”

Read more ....

WNU Editor: With the exception of some of those who live in eastern Ukraine .... this dream of a "New Russia" has never caught with most Russians. The reason why is simple .... it costs too much, there are a thousand one problems in managing any new territory, and it diverts focus away from other problems that are far more important to ordinary Russians (economy, inflation, employment, etc). But Russian public opinion will support intervention if they see Russians being threatened and/or attacked .... but beyond that .... there is no stomach for it. As for Crimea .... as I have mentioned it more than once in this blog .... the peninsula has always been predominantly Russian, but many were content with being part of Ukraine. But when the revolutionary government in Kiev started passing anti-Russian laws .... the dynamics on the ground in Crimea changed completely.