Oh the Wolf wanted to join the chicken coop? Get out of here!
Meanwhile, Putin was intent on making his mark in history and likely became disillusioned to playing nicely with “The West.” He likely did not feel comfortable with the lukewarm attitude towards Russia and the US’s preoccupations with war combined with the EU’s indifference towards Russia allowed Putin to arm unsupervised.
We saw him beginning to seek to close off all ingress points into Russia, but we didn’t understand its significance at the time. The huge swath of land that encompasses modern day Russia has been invaded a multitude of times through history and via these geographic “gateways” that exist on land that were mostly under soviet control during the Cold War, but now cannot be adequately controlled by Russia without conquest.
Putin put Russia into a state of readiness for future invasions, banking on the fact that quick takeovers would receive limited backlash from western powers and the international community. The invasion of Georgia closed off one of these gateways, a successful invasion of Ukraine would have closed three including the one in Crimea that Russia “annexed” (read: stole) in 2014.
I do not blame the Russian people for Putin’s actions - which he needs to be held responsible for - and only wish the Russian people could finally enjoy democratic elections and they can finally put the days of needing a “strong man” in charge behind them. I think at that point will be able to welcome Russia back into the global community.
I don't fault NATO or Russia for their fear of each other, as each of them continually maneuvered for better military advantage against each other.
I think it's hard to imagine the West welcoming Russia into the global community as long has it presents a credible military threat, no matter what the leadership is. Similarly, I can't imagine Russia ever agreeing to a unilateral demilitarization under any leadership.
Even if a hypothetical Russia had no imperial ambitions, it can't prove it.
The most ironic part of this is that Russias invasion of Ukraine is directly responsible for recent NATO expansion.
I believe it was the lack of a solid commitment from NATO that caused the invasion, not the vagueness that they Ukraine would eventually join. But all of that is moot anyway, as the Russians where given privates assurances by Germany that Ukraines NATO bid would be vetoed and they still invaded anyway.
For example, Ukraine turning to Europe is just disastrous for Putin's authority. So the war stops Ukraine from prospering and demonstrating a different way forward to Russians, and it also turns Ukrainians into 'other'.