Being a good anti putinist I've been scoffing at this idea for some years, much like the idea of #Russia being "surrounded" and the like, but stepping back i really don't think we can understand the current Russian regime without #NATO expansion into former soviet satellites, not to mention the West's active role in crushing Russian democracy and their alliance with oligarchs looting of former soviet infrastructure. An alternative post-soviet timeline where US/ Europe disbands NATO and dont enthusiastically loot the eastern bloc and #CIA doesn't fuck around with every democratic movement in the region or look for every opportunity to rub salt in Russia's wounds likely would not see #Putin rise to absolute power.

This isn't to make any justification for Putin's invasion of #Ukraine which was neither necessary or inevitable but the current situation in Russia and Eastern Europe simply does not exist in a Vacuum and US/EU/NATO policy have all played a role in shaping the current shituation.

NATO shills love bringing up Russia's brutal imperialist history, but then downplay Western Europe's ongoing imperialism as well as erasing the history of west European aggression and exploitation in the East, while upholding the myth of Western European Democracy