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Notes -
From my understanding it is popular to compare not Ukraine-as-it-is-now and Russia-as-it-is-now but comparing say Ukraine and Poland.
Or comparing Belarus with Estonia.
It is less "it is much better than in Russia" but about preferring to get to European standards, not Russian standards.
Yeah, that's the fantasy. But it won't be the reality. Ukraine is a Slavic country that is culturally similar to Russia. Whether they are politically part of Russia that won't change.
Estonia, on the other hand, is demographically most similar to Finland. That's why they got rich and Ukraine didn't.
In this case overwhelming influence is clearly cultural, economical, political and institutional.
Even if you could argue about genetics causing major influence on outcomes in some cases, in this case it is just bizarre for me to crediting any serious influence. Russia/Belarus/Ukraine being this way as it is is not caused by genetics.
(or for that matter difference of situation in say Germany between 1900, 1940, 1950 and 1970 was not caused by genetics, the same for Poland)
(though anyway it is not changing what Ukrainians believe(d) )
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