This one is purely speculative
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Our region and its neighbors produce most of this nation’s GDP — let’s just say wealth. Granted, our oligarchs syphon off most of this wealth but some trickles down to us, too.
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The good people in the streets of Kiev want to break the oligarchs’ monopoly on power. We wouldn’t mind that, too. But we don’t trust their leaders.
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Their leaders are oligarchs from other parts of Ukraine who aren’t satisfied with what they’ve got. When they grab assets from our local oligarchs, we’ll be even worse off.
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Also, when those new oligarchs from the West come to power, they’ll spend the tax money — and most of that comes from us — on their cronies.
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They’ll try to Halicize Ukraine, and we Easterners will become second-class citizens. Our kids will have a problem getting into Kyiv universities.
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So you see, it’s not about democracy, it’s just us against them.
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We’d rather become autonomous and deal with our oligarchs ourselves.