“So is invading your neighbor for a land grab.”
So is using a country to destabilize a neighboring country.
What exactly was happening inside Ukraine up to Feb. 24th that ‘destabilized’ russia? Nothing. Were Ukraininans shooting down russian passenger jets (like Girkin shooting down MH-17)? No. Were they flooding russia with undesirable refugees (like Belarus was doing to Poland)? Also, no. Were they ridding themselves of Kremlin puppets like Yanukovich, and angling to join the EU? Yes. But that only ‘destabilized’ russia in the sense that it would show russian people that there was a better way for post-soviet republics to exist, than to be fiefdoms of mafia thugs and oligarchs. Ukraine was not, is not and never will be an existential threat to russia. The same way 1938 Czechoslovakia was no threat to Germany. Hitler, like putin, simply needed an external ‘enemy’ to consolidate and maintain dictatorial power. That is all.