> NATO did nothing provocative. <
That’s not exactly what I said. I said that NATO did things that Russia saw as provocative. Consider the Baltic states. Like it or not, they are in Russia’s backyard. Then one day, *poof* they are in NATO.
That had to been seen as provocative by Russia. Just as putting Soviet missiles in Cuba back in 1962 was seen as provocative by the United States.
As I said earlier, there are no clean hands here. NATO did things that weren’t very friendly (for lack of a better word). And then Putin wildly overreacted.
It’s kind of like what set off WW I. Let’s just hope that Trump 2.0 can stop a WW III.
pooty *chose* to see it as provocative. Pooty though no-one would care about Ukraine.
“And then Putin wildly overreacted.”
Not really. He had two choices, accept Ukraine in NATO, the loss of Crimea that has been Russian longer than Ohio has been American... OR act.
If he accepted the NATO Ukraine move, it would be permanent.
He spent a year asking for negotiations on the status of the Donbass right up till the last minute. The Uke army we built up was prepping and about to launch it’s final assault on the Donbass.
We answered his final proposal that we would do whatever we wanted, we would only talk to him about topic WE considered relevant but nothing on Ukraine. He was left with two choices... NATO tanks, missiles and jets right up the the Russian border... or go on the attack.
It was not an overreaction. It was binary, surrender to our agenda which would be permanent and unremovable... or roll the tanks. With those choices, he rolled. It’s very rational.