Exactly. So quit your whining when Russia strikes back and kinetically blows the sh!t out of the Ukrainian’s port facilities. The world is a two-way street.
Putin was offered a golden ticket into the same finance system. All he had to do was agree to the principle that Russian finance should be amenable to external audit.
Mikhail Khordokovsky opened his businesses up to external audits to prove they were clean.
Khordokovsky also reminded Putin that he’d stood for high office on an anti corruption ticket.
So it’s ironic that Putin, who was elected on an anti corruption ticket, didn’t just reject the Khordokovsky advice... He confiscated those businesses, broke them up, handed bits of them over to his mates, and they’re now worthless.
The EU invited Putin to renegotiate the EU-Russia arrangements if he wasn’t happy with them. He turned the offer down in favor of blackmailing Ukraine into abandoning its EU deal.
“Russia strikes back” my ass.
Putin routinely chooses to force Russians to put on hair shirts despite offers from the west to wear something more comfortable... then he goes around blaming the west for Russia’s itchy rags.
Putin just can’t help himself. It’s his fault Russia is a basket case, nobody elses’.