Russia and Ukraine are waging a fierce verbal sparring on Twitter, in which there are few facts, a few emoticons and a video of “the Simpsons”.
What happened was this. On Monday at a meeting in Versailles with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned the Princess Anna. Of course, he was talking about the daughter of a Prince of Kievan Rus Yaroslav the Wise. She became Queen of France in 1051, married king Henry I of the Capetian dynasty.
Why this created such a problem? In short here it is. Russia takes its Orthodox and tsarist origins in Kievan Rus, which was located on the territory of Ukraine. For Kiev the problem is the Kremlin’s refusal to acknowledge the fact that its historical roots are in Ukraine. In addition, the Kremlin claims that Ukrainian history is in fact part of Russian Imperial history. For example, about Anna from Kiev, he speaks as a Russian.
Where you can find the lists for this diplomatic squabble? Of course, Twitter.
When @Russia says Anne de Kiev established Russia-France relations, let us remind ourselves of the sequence of events pic.twitter.com/nBKhQdyKql
— Ukraine / Ukraïna (@Ukraine) on 30 may 2017.
@Ukraine
When @Russia says that Russian-French relations have established the Anne of Kiev, it is necessary to recall the sequence of events.
We are proud of our common history. ??, ?? & ?? share the same historical heritage which our nations should unite, not divide us. pic.twitter.com/hdmkuGy22p
— Russia ?? (@Russia), 30 may 2017
@Russia
We are proud of our common history. We have a common historical heritage, which should unite our country, not divide us.
You really don’t change, do you? pic.twitter.com/HDfS9A8jWZ
— Ukraine / Ukraïna (@Ukraine) on 30 may 2017.
@Ukraine
Yeah, you can not change.
Not for the first time a symbol of the past became a matter of dispute between Russia and Ukraine. In 2011, Russia has published a map on which were marked the places of birth of your favorite heroes of folk tales. Among them was the Bun. This baked dough character rolling through woods and fields, trying to avoid the fate which awaits almost all rolls in our greedy world. The map also shows the birthplace of folk hero Ilya Muromets and lays Golden eggs chicken Ryaba.
It would seem that a lovely fairy story. Except that Ukraine argues that Kolobok, Ilya Muromets and Kurochka Ryaba belong to her.
The struggle between Russia and Ukraine over the authorship of a ball of dough and the exchange of sarcastic tweets from Princess, who lived a thousand years ago, may seem silly until we remember that they are now a very real war for national sovereignty and for Russian-Ukrainian relations, and that this war killed more than 10 thousand people.
