Dialects (and accents) of Russian

[panzeleche.livejournal.com]

Hello, once again, and thanks for the question regarding that previous piece of vocabulary. This community is awesome.

I have a question now about Russian as it is spoken around the world. Are there accents and/or dialects specific to Russian spoken in the Eastern Europe post-Soviet states (Ukraine, Belarus, etc.)?
What about Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, etc.)? I can't seem to find much about that, but seeing that apparently 95% of Kazakhstan speaks Russian, I'd be interested in knowing if there are any differences.
I'm also interested in knowing about Russian in the east, such as in Sibera (I've heard that there are some native Siberian languages unrelated to Russian; does this perhaps influence how these people speak Russian?)
I've been informed that Russian throughtout Russia sounds more or less the same except for Okanye, Yakanye, and some other '-kanye's.
Basically, I'm interested in how Russian varies from country to country, or even from region to region. There is suprisingly little on this (or perhaps my Search-fu is weak).

A gazillion thanks to everyone who responds! :D

На/в Украине?

[bakedgoods10.livejournal.com]

I've heard a couple different opinions on this topic, and would like to see what the majority of native speakers has to say.

When saying "in Ukraine" does one use the preposition на or в? Originally, in school, I was taught на Украине. However, my senior year, in preparation for a trip there, we were instructed to say в Украине. The explanation was that, Ukrainians, since the fall of the CCCP, have renewed pride for their country, and claim that since it is not an island there is no reason to use на- that it is в Украине. Russians, though, still claim it to be на Украине. However, speaking recently with my host brother from Ukraine, he uses на. So, is what I'm been told about в complete nonsense, or is it a regional thing? My host brother's from Eastern Ukraine, when Russian is still the main language spoken in homes, and Ukrainian is left for official documents only, whereas I've heard the west is all Ukrainian-speaking. Could that be where в comes from?

That's my question to native speakers- do you say на Украине or в Украине? Which country/region are you from and how old are you?

x-posted in linguaphiles

В and На

[dezelina.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone,

Can someone tell me when to use в and when to use на when trying to express changes in quantity.  For example, production rose by 20%, the amount decreased by 20%?  I have seen в and на used after verbs like these, and never know which preposition is correct.

Thanks in advance!