https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=monty+python+-+the+people+who+say+nyet&view...

In this essay, I argue that the Western narrative is incorrect. In crucial respects, it is the opposite of truth. The underlying cause of the war lies not in an unbridled expansionism of Mr. Putin, or in paranoid delusions of military planners in the Kremlin, but in a 30-year history of Western provocations, directed at Russia, that began during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and continued to the start of the war. These provocations placed Russia in an untenable situation, for which war seemed, to Mr. Putin and his military staff, the only workable solution. In arguing this case, I pay special attention to the United States — and subject it to particularly sharp criticism — because it has played the decisive role in shaping Western policy.

In criticizing the West, it is not my aim to justify Moscow’s invasion or exonerate Russia’s leaders. I have no brief for Mr. Putin. Notwithstanding all I will say, I believe he had alternatives to war. But I do want to understand him — in the sense of seeking to rationally assess the causal sequence that led him to launch the war.

https://medium.com/@benjamin.abelow/western-policies-caused-the-ukraine-crisis-a...

Frank wrote on Feb 4^th, 2023 at 7:15pm:



I can see where the author is coming from, however I disagree with the conclusion that it is the fault of the US and the west in general.  Russia has a long history of paranoia about invasion from the west and Napoleon and Hitler served to confirm that in the Russian psyche.

After the collapse of the USSR it was only natural that the countries that had been used as unwilling roadblocks against any western invasion would seek to distance themseves from their former occupiers. However this disturbed the Russians, and when Ukraine, a former USSR republic, did the same the paranoia went ballistic. 

Nothing to do with the US and everything to do with the Russian mindset. 

Russians are inherently paranoid about invasion.

They have always taught their children, in school and home, of the 'times of troubles'.

These are times when a foreign force has invaded Russia and savaged the great Russian people and the country. Then, from among their numbers, a Russian saviour and strongman, (typically a Tsar, but also a Soviet leader and, recently, Putin), rises to defeat and drive out the invaders.

This extends as far back as Russia has existed and includes stories of the horrors of the Mongol invasion from the east.

Belgarion wrote on Feb 4^th, 2023 at 9:24pm:




So the US setting up military bases in, I don't know, every country that surrounds Russia had nothing to do with the paranoia?
What about Obama installing a rogue Ukraine gov in 2014?
Nothing?
What about NATO bombing innocent people, the same innocent people it says (in western media) that it's trying to protect.

Yep, Russia's fault.
Blame trump, or the abos in Alice Springs.

Turn off the western media mate. It will rot your brain, worse than crack.

Captain Caveman wrote on Feb 6^th, 2023 at 1:30pm:



What can I say that will have any effect on such stupidity? 

Putin is a coward and loser.

Belgarion wrote on Feb 6^th, 2023 at 3:18pm:



You'd only parrot what the US MSM told you.