Russian Ukraine War

[mateinone]

That being said back to the war for a moment.  I believe it's easy for the Russian people to get behind the war in Ukraine because they will feel its their own land been taken off them since whenever.  I state this because I know of people who would be of the same opinion pretty much in a half a dozen countries with a portion who might consider themselves an independent nation.  It would be viewed the same globally, taking back whats rightfully theirs, irrespective of what the rest of the world thinks about it.  When you recognise this factor its easier to understand why this happens.  That doesn't make it right either.  These mentalities are not about right or wrong.  National identity.  Etc.  They are very much an opinion.  China and Taiwan is the same.  An opinion that one nation is separate to the other.  The fact the world recognises it is largely political and a collection of opinions designed to favour an outcome that isn't always clear to the rest of us.

You are correct that a lot of people consider Ukraine to be Russian land and if you go back to the origins of Russia, Kiev was the 2nd capital (after Novgorod, which was the original capital of Rurik). Of course the Kievan Rus was in fact a different country from what Russia is now and there was no Moscow, but then the 3rd capital of the Kievan Rus was in modern day Romania.
The thing with Russia is, if there is a land they have ever conquered they consider it theirs in perpetuity and it is sold to them that this was stolen from them. Many Russians don't consider that Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia have a right to independence and Russia was robbed of these territories when Gorbachev betrayed the nation. Of course this is all ridiculous, because if they want to go through historical ownership of lands, then all of Eastern Russia should be handed back to the locals such as Dagestan, Circassia, Chechnya etc and of course Kalingrad should not be Russian either.
It really is a completely dystopian world in Russia and yes you are right it is very easy for Russians to get behind whatever the Government tells them, especially when the "scholar" Putin publishes articles such as this
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181

Of course it is a distortion of facts and incomplete, but to the average Russian this is a faithful and complete retelling of history.