My point wasn't that there are russians living in europe, but that there are _lots_ of them. Alone in Germany there are over 1million. If you accept the family ties of the old tzar families why are you ignoring the people today who have ties to both countries?
And the number of russians living here is on a whole different level than let's say people from china, india or the US.
Similar, at least for the german industry, russia is not just some trade partner among others, but a fairly important one.
Just a few days ago we had quite a few headline about a company going out of business because of the sanctions against russia.
And I was always under the impression that the EU is an important trade partner for russia as well( i am to lazy though to look for some numbers)
Obviously you are correct in saying that the connections between russia and belorussa, ukraine and a few others is a stronger one. But that doesn't negate the fact that there are ties between russia and the rest of europa as well.

curios: what is the connection greece<->russia? probably sth one should know or could look up(but again, laziness wins :p)

on average being the keyword here ;).yes, on average life is really good in germany.
But I don't wanna derail this thread with my frustration about german politics, so maybe let's just stop here.

A year passed since the seizure of Crimea and the fighting in Eastern Ukraine and the shooting of an civilian airplane. All in all several thousands of people including many civilians have been killed - for a rather small bit of land.

Not comparable at all to the deaths but also the trade between Russia and its western neighbours has been cutted dramatically by about two thirds over the year.

There is not much connection between Russia and the West anymore, neither political, nor economic or cultural. Congratulations to Putin for cutting very efficiently all ties. And without good relations everyone invests in weapons. The military budgets here have been increased now after two decades of demilitarization. It's not fully back to cold war, but with the opposing geographical claims it's not friendship either. Something in between and a great deal of speechlessness which can easily worsen the whole situation.

Ukraine will continue to suffer. I think they have to give up claims on Crimea, there is no chance for it. But I also hope they will be member of NATO and EU one day. What they need is to stay on the democratic way and fight corruption efficiently. I hope they can manage that with help from the other European countries. Then there might be a better future.

Russian economy will continue to suffer and grow below average too. Russia is pretty isolated politically now. Where will it turn to? China is the only obvious partner left but it would not be an equal partnership. I hope that with time Putin will be gone and the Russians will get another (in my opinion better) government. One that can reconcile with the rest of Europe and that can concentrate on peaceful development of the country. All that billions of dollars from the selling of natural resources are only invested into war or get lost in corruption. I guess average Russians would rather get all this riches for themselves but then there is no independent justice, the opposition is suppressed (or shoot) and the press is under control of the mighty, not to speak of other very undemocratic laws, corruption, (voting) fraud and rampant nationalism. All in all rather slim chances for a change soon I would guess.

Eastern Ukraine will either be annexed by Russia soon or will continue to be a waste. It's an unsolved problem and basically there is no real good solution for it. I still think rightly it belongs to Ukraine with some autonomy but clearly to Ukraine. But then there is no way of enforcing that, rather the opposite.

Crimea is lost to Ukraine - no other chance. Surely it was an annexion and the referendum a farce with two times Yes as the question and under pressure and rushed and with voting fraud. Ukrainians as well as Tartars living there have suffered a loss, but nevertheless Crimea is lost to them. The only thing you can do is bargaining the official recognition of Crimea against a better deal for Eastern Ukraine but that's all.

All in all: I think that Russia went on the warpath and exploited the weakness of a neighbour to gain territory. Thereby they gained an advantage but also (probably unintentional) brought their western neighbours much, much closer together. The short term gains might be offset by long run loses due to the bad relations to their neighbours. The aggressive course is backed by a considerable part of the Russian population due to nationalism and dependent media and suppressed opposition. So a relaxation of the situation soon seems to be unlikely.

All in all the best action for now for everyone is to keep calm and consolidate what you have. Russia could build nice bridges to Crimea. The EU could financially and politically help the rest of Ukraine to not become a failed state. And Eastern Ukraine - because there is no easy solution everyone should just stay away from it. This is no place where anyone would want to be now.

But of course nobody knows what the summer will bring. Maybe Ukrainians feel like they can get Donetzk back or Russians think like they can get Mariupol or even much more.. who knows. The fighting could also start again or continue.

You can't answer anything anyway - you are either naive kid or entitled dumb fuck, stuck up in "Europe is always right, these barbarian stupid russians are animals and lying to me". Tbh, that was the reason I asked about your age, for clarification, is it worth trying to talk with you or not.

Typical business with Ukrainians:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/01/ukraine-stiffs-china-billions-owes.html
tl&dr:
China paid $3B in advance for grain, Ukraine sold grain elsewhere. Now they have $6B. Reputation? Long term contracts? Nah. Just look in these honest eyes.
http://i.imgur.com/oM1p9oc.jpg
Translation: these hands didn't steal anything, actual words of Ukrainian president overthrown for being corrupt.
The more credits IMF gives them, the louder Russian laugh.

Do you know, who is this? http://i.imgur.com/0HShqCi.jpg
This is Margarita Seidler, German journalist. After witnessing first-hand what western ukrainians do she joined pro-Russian militants.
German journalist does what she can, and array of her possibilities doesn't include breaking truth about conflict through your "free media".

Now, do you know that Russia is very patriarchal, we don't enlist women as Israel does?
So, you are telling me that "Russian invasion forces" during "secret invasion of Ukraine" let FOREIGN WOMAN fight on their side?
Again, German woman protects russians on Ukraine. Shouldn't I do something? Like being in her place? Shouldn't YOU do something?

As for "fun" Ukraine provides:
cargo cult:
http://i.imgur.com/5xS7FIP.png
which needs ritual hunting
http://i.imgur.com/4bVWbVZ.jpg
And selling their country for shit and giggles
http://i.imgur.com/x4gdeia.jpg
So drug addicted son of Biden can be a CEO.
http://i.imgur.com/E4vqkpd.jpg

Unlikely, NK can't pay well.
They do sell rocket and aviaconstruction technologies to China.

Got also interested and found this.

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This is the graph seem to provide breakdown:

India (blue), China (red), Algeria(green), Viet Nam(purple), Venezuela (cyan), Iran(orange)

IMHO, Russia does not use marketing with fear, I think...

So the permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany and Israel, are the major arms proliferators, which means there will be no significant improvement re international peace and security until this bloodthirsty business is shut down; even worse, however, are the implications re climate change, because nothing is more environmentally destructive than war.