Looking on Google Earth, it looks so peaceful and beautiful. Those areas that had been cleared off previously are growing back. The planted forest is orderly and neat, but the area of regrowth is sort of willy nilly. I guess considering the circumstances, that should be expected.
No signs of human activity, no automobiles, no laundry hung out. It is eerie.
Hitler had big plans for the Ukraine and the Russian Steppes. It looks like Putin does too. Putting the Soviet Union back together may prove an impossible task. I suspect they will forget about all of the stans. They will probably cost them more than they will produce for them.
Ethnic Russians are scattered all through what was the Soviet Union. Let's see what happens next.
Loyalty to ethnicity has historically come before loyalty to country, which is a problem for countries that allow mass immigration.
This is why assimilation is listed as a form of genocide by the Geneva Convention.
It is not generally permitted for people to enter the hottest part of the zone, which is a crime. It is possible to get a tour to some of the less hot areas.
To think it is nowhere near as toxic as Lake Karachay, considered to be the most polluted place on earth.
Hitler had plans, Putin has plans, we have plans.
What about the people in those countries? Are not all peoples entitled to their own nation, language, cultures and traditions?
I have such sympathy for those people trapped eternally by politics.
I hope we can calm down and avoid getting dragged into a war, but when the Ukrainians surrendered their nukes to us when the Soviet Union was dissolved, we agreed to protect them in exchange, which puts us in quite the political situation, unfortunately.
