As much as some posters would like to make this thread all about the US, let’s remember that Russia is the one that has agency in this situation.
Russia has always had a strong empire building cultural sub-text. There is a strong belief in some circles that the dismantling of the USSR was a self-inflicted mistake. Putin imagines himself the leader to rectify that mistake and restore some form of the Russian empire. Two years of relative isolation due to Covid has exacerbated the perception of the need to right those wrongs.
The nations bordering Russia have always understood this and decided the only way to protect themselves and prevent being taken over by Russia eventually was to join NATO.
Edit:
The Russians started their attack of eastern Ukraine
“As much as some posters would like to make this thread all about the US, let’s remember that Russia is the one that has agency in this situation.”
I think this is a good point. Imperialism, purely Russian imperialism. Nothing new in history, this is the same logic why the first world war started, then the second. It is all about Russia now, the only nation in Europe with the pre-first world war mentality. One idiot here continuously writes about “Nazis”, “Azov batallion thugs”, you need to have some noble casus belli…
Now I feel a story coming on, and you should read it because it could save your life! (Just kidding; a now-deceased acquaintance of mine once said that before telling one of his yarns, which was sort of interesting, but had no life-saving features).
I used to have a sort of interest in Ceuta, because they had a prison there (I don’t know whether it’s still there and still functioning), and some people were sent there in 1851 after a failed attempt to take over Cuba from the Spanish Government.
After that failed filibustering expedition, apparently the Spanish-language newspapers in New Orleans printed accounts of acts done to some of the unsuccessful soldiers of fortune (and maybe to some of their bodies?), and New Orleanians got wind of the Spanish newspaper accounts and rioted in the Spanish sector of the town.
(I remember reading that the duellist Pepe Llulla, with a sword in each hand, accompanied the Spanish consul to safety.)
The Spanish government demanded six million dollars in damages to those Spanish nationals, and in exchange the Queen of Spain pardoned the American filibusteros (soldiers of fortune, whatever term you want to apply) when they reached Vigo, Spain. But those who weren’t Americans had to go to prison in Ceuta.
One of the non-Americans, a guy named Schlesinger, somehow escaped from Ceuta. I think a woman helped him escape (perhaps through bribery?), because I think she later made some claim along those lines in a suit against Schlesinger for breach of promise.
Later on, Schlesinger helped the other filibusters escape from Ceuta.