“No. You have it backwards. Russia was not in a “Cold War” state with the west. Look at Russia’s defense spending. It was miniscule in comparison to ours. “
It was never a matter of “defense spending”. It was a matter of military posture and in that Putin as I said kept abrogating missile treaties he had agreed to, showing he was NOT trying to end Soviet/Russian hostile stance toward the west.
Russia has not been trying to conquer the world, reform the Soviet Union or any other ridiculous BS the neocons habitually accuse it of. It has intervened in Georgia and Ukraine when the governments of each were stomping on their Russian minorities. Other than that, it is not Russia which has gone all over the world getting involved in constant wars. Its the US that has done that at the behest of the Deep State.
Russia was promised NATO would not expand eastward when they let the wall fall and allowed East Germany to reunite with West Germany. Then NATO expanded and gobbled up much of the old Warsaw pact. Then NATO expanded again and even included former parts of the Soviet Union. NATO's air defense systems and others moved eastward with expansion. Who was all of that aimed at? Russia of course.
Russia said over and over again starting around 2005 or so that it could live with the two waves of NATO expansion but Ukraine was a red line. It would not tolerate NATO expansion into Ukraine. Did that stop the West from pushing to get Ukraine into NATO? Not one bit.
Why? Why is it SO important that Ukraine be in NATO? Why is it "necessary" for America's national defense that a country half a world away be included? Why did anybody think it wise to do away with the buffer zone between Russia and NATO? If you take a step back and look, you can see that it is not Russia that has been the aggressor over the last 30 years. Its America/NATO that has done that. I await the inevitable childish namecalling eg "Tool of Putin!!!" etc for pointing out these facts.