“And yet that was never given as a reason for the invasion.”
Because it isn’t true. Had it been true, it would have been a top news story from the onset, from multiple sources.
There are some Putin water-carriers on FR, and propagandists, if not outright operatives.
When stories like this are being considered authoritative by Putin supporters here, it demonstrates pretty clearly that there's no point even discussing this anymore.
What really sucks is that this stuff is going to be used by Democrats to show that a lot of Republicans were Putin supporters. A very nice bit of ammo that our "fellow conservatives" have handed to the other side prior to the midterms.