The US should promote democratic laws that provide equal civil rights to both the Ukrainian- and Russian-speakers. With ethnic issues taken off the table, Putin would lose his pretext for military intervention.
Yanukovich’s regime is over, but the past continues to haunt the present. The radical Ukrainian nationalists are now drafting a "minority languages" law.
For the past 20 years Kiev has failed to address the language question adequately. The US government needs to clearly demand the application of democratic principles and equality in languages for all Ukrainian citizens. This would go a long way toward soothing discontent and quelling separatist impulses in this country at the heart of Europe, depriving Putin of the arguments used to legitimize his invasion and occupation of Crimea.
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