The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson
By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS
As a pro-independence Scot, I’ve been interested in the breakaway movement in eastern Ukraine, for some time, since well before Putin’s brutal exploitative invasion, just as I have for those in Quebec, Catalonia and the Basque Country.
As I understand it, opinion polls in that febrile world are not too reliable. However, this survey from the Center for Insights in Survey Research, a US Republican Party-owned agency, seems objective, professionally done and offers an interesting perspective on the national identification, based on languages spoken, of those living in the Donetsk and Luhansk ‘oblasts’ and the cities within.
Support for or against breaking away from Ukraine in these areas is not, of course, simply equatable with languages spoken but, I suspect, they are likely to be powerful indicators of wider views.
I was surprised to see, in this survey, the level of Russian spoken, by 70% to 90%, in parts of this region.
I propose nothing here but merely wished to add knowledge to my thinking about this troubled region.
Source: https://www.iri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/iri_donbas_gca_for_public_release.pdf
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brow
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
https://dearscotland.substack.com/p/the-uk-and-eus-worst-nightmare
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m on the mailing list from LGB
LikeLike
If you speak Russian rather than Ukrainian, I can understand the desire to be russian- trouble is,the minority Russian speakers in the Baltics cannot be afforded the same- they are more recent settlers from the post-war Soviet era..
LikeLike
Get nuclear out of Scotland. Putting Scotland in danger. Westminster warmongers dumped nuclear without authority or permission. Under the Official Secrets Act. Westminster’s muck up. Time and time again.
Boris Johnston caused the conflict in Ukraine. Interfered and caused the trouble. A waste of lives and monies. Johnston caused Brexit losing £Billions. Ukraine would never defeat Russia. Russia has the right to defend its borders.
LikeLike
To much water has passed under the bridge, to enable us to go back.
But rather than Boris Johnston, it was Joe Biden that started the Ukraine v Russian conflict. Cast your mind back to 1962/3 and the Cuban crisis. Like JFK, Putin didn’t want the power of NATO on his doorstep, as JFK didn’t want ICBM’s on his doorstep.
If Biden had kept out of it, the Ukraine would have backed off from NATO membership, Putin would have breathed a sigh of relief and no one would have been killed.
LikeLike
Hi
I’m by no means an expert, but my understanding is that Ukrainian to Russian is a bit like Doric to English or Catalan to Spanish. And I think the economic imperative of orientation towards europe is much more important than language, just as is the case in Georgia.
Peter
>
LikeLike