The Record: Five reasons to pay heed to Russians on Ukraine
Russian rhetoric on Ukraine can be infuriating, a continuous rewriting of history to disguise a fundamental disbelief in its neighbour's right to become a fully independent country. For all that, Western leaders need to listen more carefully, because some of what is being said in Moscow is right. First, the Russians are correct that we should all be wary of what just happened in Kyiv — even though the idea pushed by Russian officials that this was a coup d'etat is false. A coup requires that an existing leader be forced from power by part of the existing state structures, usually the army. That did not happen in Ukraine.