In Lviv, Ukraine, the nation's east-west divide is on display | LA Times - May 24, 2014 |

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine --  If this western Ukrainian city of Baroque fountains and cobblestone squares seems like a different country from the eastern rust belt besieged by pro-Russia separatists, that may be because, for most of its history, it was.

Wooden signs in Lviv's Rynok Square hawk homemade pirogies and stuffed cabbage rolls, tastes imparted by the Poles who ruled here for 400 years. Chestnut-shaded promenades and pastel-painted villas evoke Budapest, Prague and Vienna, sister cities of the Austro-Hungarian era when Lviv was called Lemberg.

The question of what it means to be Ukrainian is central to the dispute that has roiled the country for months, leading to an election Sunday to choose a new president. Peter Poroshenko, who has a commanding lead, is expected to win handily, either by gaining an absolute majority in the first round or in a June runoff.

Despite the region's history, which includes virulent anti-Semitism and collaboration with Nazi occupiers, Lviv residents say they embody a Ukrainian character that includes a Western orientation and respect for human rights. Russian officials and leaders of the separatist movement characterize western Ukraine as a hotbed of unrepentant fascism. And many Russians question whether there is even a separate Ukrainian nationality or language.

These sharply diverging views threaten to cleave Ukraine into a Russian-speaking eastern region that is dominated by Russia and western areas that return to their Central European origins.

'Sapere aude'

Election four years later, electing a new president on the promise of unifying the nation and making peace with Russia ...

The pro-Russian oligarchs in Kiev were pushed aside by oligarchs from the West, many minister in Kiev's new regime were imported from Western countries and granted immediate Ukrainian "citizenship".

Undoubtedly, the CIA intelligence inperium in Europe under the name Gladio was helpful to use its agents under neo-Nazi groups as was illustrated on the Maidan. The citizens' protest was infiltrated and taken over by thugs from the Lviv region, well known for genocide on the side of the German SS troops. I've written about these groups which are infested in the regions of Prussia under the German Kaiser before the first World War.

In the Baltic States, Poland and the Ukraine the "patriots" fought alongside Nazi Germany against Communism for their independence.

A Dispatch: Irish Traveler from Lviv via Kiev to Odessa | March 26, 2014 |

'Sapere aude'