Editor's note: Andrey Kurkov is a Ukrainian novelist born in St. Petersburg in 1961. Having graduated from the Kiev Foreign Languages Institute, he worked as a journalist, did his military service as a prison warden in Odessa, then became a cameraman, writer of screenplays and author. His books are published in English by Harvill Secker in the UK and Meville House in the U.S. The views expressed in this commentary are solely his. For two nights between the 4th and 6th of March, I barely slept. I was checking the Internet every hour to see if Russia had started war with Ukraine.
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Talk of war with Russia is on everyone's mind in Ukraine, says novelist Andrey Kurkov
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Crimea may become a burden on Russia and isolated from the rest of the world
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Perhaps its best future lies in becoming a Soviet-era theme park, he jokes
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Fears that Russia will destabilize southern and eastern Ukraine before elections on May 25
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@placeholder was making an attempt to flex its military muscles, both to test the condition of the army and to reassure the population that we could protect ourselves.
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It became clear that since independence in 1991 neither @placeholder presidents nor the government had taken care of the military.
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Nobody thought that @placeholder might need an army; it was as simple as that.
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When it comes to the occupation of Crimea, the @placeholder government stands firm.
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This position is without doubt due to the U.S. support of @placeholder.
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They can only export it to @placeholder, but Russia has enough wine and fruit of its own.
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The impact of this "acquisition" on @placeholder's budget looks scary.
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If the self-proclaimed @placeholder government asked me the question: "How can Crimea keep on going?"
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For the last 20 years Crimea has been known for its love for everything @placeholder.
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If they don't then he can keep talking about the illegitimacy of the government, the absence of a legitimate president, and he can move further into @placeholder under the pretext of protecting the Russian-speaking population.