For people who think that "NATO enlargement" is just Putin propaganda, this was one of those diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks. It is very clear.
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html
Also scores of politicians and analysts predicted NATO expansion would lead to a new cold war, or would split Ukraine, or other dire predictions, such as Ted Galen Carpenter, George Kennan (advisor, diplomat, architect of Cold War Soviet containment strategy), Strobe Talbot (deputy secretary of defense), Robert M Gates (secretary of defense under GW Bush and Obama). Even Jens Stoltenberg the NATO secretary general doesn't dispute it when he says "So he [Putin] went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders."
I hate when people seed doubt and force me to re-research shit I already know. But I have to be thorough.
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as somebody born in Ukraine i don't know what Putin should have done given pressure from NATO but i can't bring myself to think that invading Ukraine as he did was it
remember this is not the first time Putin has used force - he used it in Chechnya and Georgia ( where my father was born )
to a man with only a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
Putin may be smart, and he may be a Russian Patriot ... but he is still a piece of shit.
I think it was an extreme move. But a calculated one that they couldn't see a better path. And it isn't really "Putin" doing these things. The Russian 'deep state' is pretty much in agreement on these things. In Georgia too it was in response to NATO.
