Is that why Trump wants to settle with Russia, so Russia can continue it's empire building without any trouble from U.S.?
Why wouldn't Putin regret the loss of the Soviet Union with the West closing in around him and threatening to NATOize their most important
geo-political strategic position. Courting dictators in former republics to stay in their orbit is not the same as conquering and colonizing,
please refer to U.S. template.
Putin's expressed his condemnation of the West for reneging on commitments to expand NATO after the Soviet break up. He was very clear.
He was very specific about what would happen if the West tried to pull Ukraine into their sphere, it was an absolute redline because of the
obvious existential threat. He was exceptionally clear.
If you want to believe in your own speculations based on vague comments rather than what's in front of you, rather than what Putin himself has said
over and over, be my guest.
Putin is a bad guy. Full stop.
His intell shows his that NATO forces are not in offensive positions. He knows that.
BTW, the Ukrainians wanted to move to the west. When their president went against popular sentiment and killed their efforts to join the EU a popular uprising hundreds of thousands in the street occurred and that president ran to Russia where he hides out now.
So...why did these countries join NATO?
Because the fucking Russians invaded them and oppressed and created secret police apparati to murder them. And left them shithouse poor. (As much about the failings of communism as their authoritarian methods, although the two go together because communism sucks and the only way to keep it is to crush your own people).
So we need to take that into account.
