[PedroBatista]

What I fear for folks who watch that video, is they leave with the perception ( most came in with ) that peaceful Putin's Russia was minding their own business and one day there comes big bad NATO bully taking over the "buffer states".

At least from the late 90's on, those countries knew what's up and they tried to assure their chances of survival. OF course there are multiple interests as always but after a World War and 50 years under communism can you blame them?

The Cold War never ended, its just that one side was temporarily out of commission and the geniuses from the other side just stopped caring.

Just hope this "Ukraine is West's fault" doesn't turn into some realpolitik's version of affluent white guilt.

[ivan_gammel]

Well, it is a bit more nuanced. In 1990s there was a surge in various nationalist movements in ex-USSR republics trying to establish national identity on ethnic grounds. In some countries this resulted in armed conflicts with ethnic cleansings. In others minorities were discriminated or pushed to severe their historical and cultural ties. “Alien” passports in Latvia and restrictions on teaching of Russian language in Ukraine were the most notable examples. Russia traditionally protected Russian minorities in Baltics and Ukraine, which resulted in tensions between the countries. Indeed, when you build an ethnic national state and ignore large minority with ties to a nuclear superpower, you may be worried about survival. Whether ethnic national state should be a thing in XXI century is another question (maybe we should also ask Belgians about how do they feel about speaking French).

[laacz]

I am a firm believer in hat it was NEVER about protecting russians abroad. I'm from Latvia and might be biased, but evidence points that they have other reasons behind their continuous aggression.

[jacquesm]

Spot on. My heart is with you (have family in Latvia).