History has its ironies. At precisely the moment the people of Scotland were being allowed peacefully to decide their future within the United Kingdom, a joint session of the U.S. Congress was giving standing ovations to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who, if taken seriously, was calling for brutal suppression of a minority in his country seeking similar freedom.
The Western opposition to Russian- speakers in Ukraine seeking the right to some form of autonomy has been extraordinary. Few of our politicians and commentators would even think of condemning the moves in Scotland, Catalonia or Quebec seeking independence, or the many moves to autonomy based on cultural, language or historical differences within the EU nations. Even nations without such differences, such as the U.S. or Australia, see the federation of partly self-governing units as a better form of government.
Yet all seem able to fume with genuine indignation when the Russian- speakers in eastern and southern Ukraine simply seek autonomy from a discriminatory, inefficient and corrupt central government in Kiev.