Thanks for the hard work putting the maps together. It gives a bit more to take in. Good stuff.
Russians have been famously infamous about their paranoia. It seems justified since Napoleon and Hitler did so much damage to them. If Hitler hadn’t called his southern army back north then turned them south again he would have had Russia’s nads in a vice.
I can see where Russia (Putin) is feeling closed in. Missiles in Poland and possibly missiles and troops in Ukraine? This is the end result of a whole boatload of bad decisions.
Even before Napoleon, it was the Germans again, and the Swedes, and the Vikings, and the Mongols from the east.
Living on open plains means constant invasion, and developing a very different military rationale than, say, Great Britain (Island nation) or the USA, a continental power guarded by oceans.