Ethnic Independence

I can’t believe after all that has come out about Soviet genocide, repression and disastrous economic conditions over the 50 years following World War II that Hough still doesn’t get it. The nations that declared independence from the Soviet Union used nationalism as a means, rather than an end, to achieve the simple human rights, which we in the Western World take so much for granted. The miserable conditions they are enduring today are more a result of the closed economy engendered by the Soviet system than of any sanctions imposed by Russia today.

I am even more amazed that Hough cites as “dramatic” the changes in government by the former republics in the quest for better economic conditions. Didn’t the United States do the same last November?

MARIJA NAVICKAS

Westlake Village