For our present conflict, Vladimir Putin is not alone at fault. His actions have often been reactions to America’s unilateral moves. After the Soviet Union collapsed, we brought all of the Warsaw Pact members and three former republics of the USSR into our military alliance, NATO, to corral Russia. How friendly was that?
Putin responded with his military buildup in the Baltic. George W. Bush abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that Richard Nixon had negotiated, Putin responded with a buildup of the offensive missiles he put on display last week.
The U.S. helped to instigate the Maidan Square coup that dumped over the elected pro-Russian government in Ukraine. To prevent the loss of his Sebastopol naval base on the Black Sea, Putin countered by annexing the Crimean Peninsula.
https://original.antiwar.com/buchanan/2018/03/08/time-to-get-over-the-russophobia/
