In the case of Ukraine, Russia had influence, as when their lackey Yanukovich got the Rada to approve a lease for a naval base in Crimea in 2010. But that wasn't enough for Putin. He had to demand "control" when an independent Ukraine expressed perfectly reasonable desire to move toward the economic benefits of joining the EU. And now it's "annex" since Ukraine's people recognized and refused Yanukovich's treasonous move offering Putin "control".
BTW that naval lease precluded any accession to NATO, which never gets mentioned.
The rest is just hogwash, not worth fisking.
There you go,
Latch onto a word because it sounds good to you.
On the topic of controlling folks whether they like it or not, will we leave Iraq soon? They recently asked us to leave again, that would be the 20th official request (no kidding) over the last 21 years we have been occupying them after we invaded under false pretenses.
What about Syria? Or do you think the people want us there? Hahaha
You always are great at making the FR a bit entertaining / humorous.