I think the point is no one really wants any country to have that much territory it just causes problems, especially when large parts of it are not really productive. It just results in a very large population and an enormous burden on the government.
Yeah, one country spanning 11 time zones is a bit much. They have just shy of 145 million residents. And burden on the government or no, there's loads of areas in the far reaches that I'm sure would just rather be their own country.
Seriously - that's not the problem. Tying together into one state with ex-Soviet unitarist culture so many different areas with natural riches and subservient population is bad.
I'd rather split both Russia and Ukraine into equally-sized (population-wise) pieces and have them form confederations where unity is wanted. (Fuck, that's another USA)
Since Ukraine can't hope to have a victory that will solve the threat, I think Ukrainians should be interested. Their country would split into like 3 pieces which are different enough anyway.
It won't work if you just announce oh this country is going to get split. It has to happen organically, or it won't happen at all.
I'm not saying it will happen I'm just saying that it would be the best outcome. I'm saying that NATO don't particularly want to replace Russia with pseudo Russia, there really isn't any point doing that. So the original comment about having Ukraine take over Russia just doesn't work in his absolutely not in NATO's interests.
And that's before you even look at the problem of subjugating a population, some of which will be fighting back, leading to a never-ending guerrilla war. Which is another thing NATO have no interest in happening, especially if the ultimate objective of Ukraine is to join NATO.
Ex-Soviet space becoming through some agreements supported by referendums fractured into small enough fragments in loose confederations is not something I'd expect to be a cause for guerilla war. Any forcible change is.
No. Ukraine is just like Russia in everything but geography. Which means it has more densely and equally spread population, fewer fossil fuel resources, realistic logistics with Central Europe and Balkans.
Corruption-wise it's absolutely the same.
EDIT: Downvotes? Has anyone here (other than myself) ever been in Russia and in Ukraine? Even in Western countries corruption is a problem, how do you think it is in post-Soviet countries the whole power in which at some point belonged to crooks with golden toilet seats?