Here are the cold facts. In 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed NATO consisted of 16 member nations Secretary of State James Baker told the Russian delegation that following the reunification of Germany it would be the only addition to NATO and NATO would not advance any further eastward.
So here we are 2022 and those 16 NATO member nations? Guess how many there are now?.....30. With nearly all of them former Warsaw Pact nations. Putin is right. After having been lied to by the West in the past why should he believe it now when it says that it has no current plans to admit Ukraine to NATO despite Ukraine says that it wants to. BTW if he wanted to once again stack Cuba full of nuclear missiles which he can.....what do you think about that?
The president of Finland made a good point today when he pointed to the fact that the situation in Europe is some ways more dangerous that it was during the Cold War. Back then as he pointed out there were agreements understandings and treaties with the Soviet Union where both understood what would happen if they didn't stay out o each others way....that don't exist anymore.
According to this AM's intelligence report Russian has 120 of it's 160 conventionally armed combat battalions parked on the Ukraine border. So you tell me what do you think he'll do after he bulldozes over Ukraine? Keep going westward into Moldova or Romania? Or perhaps turn north toward Poland? BTW He's an autocratic president, been in office for 22 years, doesn't have to answer to anybody and couldn't care less about how much suffering sanctions would inflict on the population.