As I recall, when Russia acceded to the reunification of Germany, guarantees were made that NATO would have no further eastward expansion. Subsequently, it was expanded through Eastern Europe and the Baltics to the Russian border. Good for those countries. They came under the umbrella. And Russia tolerated this, until Ukraine.
Ukraine was a step too far. Because NATO there was an existential threat for Russia. We knew that, of course, and we picked the fight.
Further, you will notice that Russia doesn’t often buy into the leftist/new world order ideologies. I’ve said before - I’m not so sure we are always the good guys anymore. We need to have a country like that under our thumb, don’t we? Gotta get them flying that rainbow flag and allowing uncontrolled immigration and so forth, right? They need to adopt those liberal western values, no? After all, we are the absolute bastion of Christian propriety.
Why was it ever in our strategic interest to guarantee Ukraine’s security? To keep Russia from invading Maine? Because the Black Sea is an important trade route? What is the American interest?
Ukraine miscalculated. They should have aimed for economic integration with Europe - not security or military alliance.
The resurgence of the Russian Empire?!?!?! Are you kidding me??? Given their (lack of) success in Ukraine, that seems beyond paranoid. As I recall, their demographics are horrible. The conflict has laid bare the ineffectiveness of their conventional forces. As I said, they have been a fading threat for decades.
But this is all very neocon - everything, everywhere, is a threat. We must control the globe. If all else fails, bomb the heck out of them. When your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail.
Our strategic mistake was making Russia a resource for China, which comprises a far greater threat than Russia owning the (Russian-speaking) fringes of a backwater, corrupt country, that hasn’t really even existed as a sovereign nation for centuries, until so constructed by Russia itself.
Thanks for the conversation, Red Leg. It is always good to see from other’s viewpoint. That is enough geopolitics for me, for a while. I’m out.