Again I'm going to need to defer to the GOAT on this one, checkout his podcast (Thoughts on Ukraine) https://open.spotify.com/episode/04i6x4kp00XQAfBJyW3Rna?si=b439ef7becac477c
I'll list a few key points here as a quick teaser reference:
- Many of the Russians in power when Germany was unified and brought into NATO were the same ones who fought a brutal war against them in WWII.
- NATO, which today is practically an anti-russia aliance, was promised that it would never get as close to russia as it has been getting.
- When the soviet union collapsed, western powers looted instead of supported what was one of the largest (and least bloody) revolutions in history. Hundreds of billions of dollars were taken out.
- The Russians who had just revolted against communism were treated similarly, although not as badly, as the Germans after WWI.
- Putin's predecessors were mostly puppets of the U.S.A
- The Russian billionaire class that formed post soviet collapse were brought under control by Putin and forced to stop interfering in politics. However, some refused and fled with their wealth to countries like America where they used their money to influence anti Russian sentiment
- (More Coming)