Professor John Robertson OBA
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.
I generally avoid comment on trans, the Rangers and Ukraine. I get enough personal abuse on the ferries. However, I like a survey, so hopefully to add some light.
As I understand it, opinion polls in that febrile world are not too reliable. However, this 2020 survey [n1 666] 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 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 with general dissatisfaction and/or languages spoken but, I suspect, they are likely to be powerful indicators of views on that.
I was surprised to see, in this survey, the level of Russian, spoken by 70% to 90%, in parts of this region with only one lower than that.
I propose nothing here but merely wished to add knowledge to thinking about this troubled region.
Source: https://www.iri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/iri_donbas_gca_for_public_release.pdfjohnrobertson834Edit
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I had to post this then see what England’s Parliament will do if it happens.
https://news.sky.com/story/hundreds-of-jobs-at-risk-as-metals-recycling-giant-nears-liquidation-13474756
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Thats the trouble with the post revolution& WW2 Soviet policies of encouraging Russification in its expanding sphere of influençe- problem in the Baltics today with significant Russian-speaking minorities- we should know by supporting Britishness in other’s countries!
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I’ve long seen the parallel with the Russian identifying south and east of Ukraine and their resistance to the domination of a hostile regime in Kiev following the coups in 2004 and 2014. The people voted to rejoin the Russian republic. If they identify as Russian and want self determination, how is that different from us identifying as Scottish and wanting self determination?
The principle was established by a British QC in arguing that Kosovo had a right to self determination after the NATO war on Yugoslavia.
Apos – I don’t have the links to hand but this was well argued in 2014 during the Referendum campaign.
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GOOD TO KNOW
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@ Jeffrey Sachs. Account
The US previous involvement.
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