Sunday
This is an excellent overview of what led to the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Without 30 years of provocative, to the Russian mind threatening, behavior by the United States, the Ukraine war does not happen.
John Mearsheimer has pointed out that for well over 20 years, from the Soviet collapse in 1991 until the 2014 US supported, anti-democratic, violent coup in Kiev against a pro-Russian Ukrainian president, no one of any importance, absolutely no one, viewed Russia as a military threat to its neighbors or to Europe generally, or believed that Russia harbored revanchist impulses. Neither its behavior during this period nor its top officials’ statements suggested Russia had any designs of dominating its near abroad, let alone conquering it, much less conquering anyone else.
And don’t forget: By February of 2014 Russia had endured repeated broken promises by “the West” (actually, by the neocon/Russia hating US cabal) that NATO would never be expanded toward the east. Those expansions, in the teeth of universal assurances by Western leaders to Gorbachev, rankled in Russia across its political spectrum, but for years Russia did no more than meekly object.
Read it all HERE