This article is well worth reading. The author makes the point that the rapid growth of a distinct Ukrainian identity and nationality was of great concern to Putin. Soon it would become, Putin’s feared, irreversible. And thus a formidable barrier to his vision of a greater Russia. This spike in the process of national renewal, independence, and consciousness is traceable to the Maiden revolution in 2014 – a revolution that had been and still is reduced by many on the left – and the communist movement in particular – to no more than a U.S. engineered and Nazi led coup d’etat and counterrevolution with no democratic dimensions.