[CapricornNoble]

>>>Russia invaded Georgia too, lest we forget.

I notice many users on HN start their "history of Russia" with the invasion of Georgia in 2008....but Russia has been led by Putin since 1999. We might have short memories due to our governments changing every 4 years...but this country has been run by the same man for 23 years. And I'm sure he has a long memory. So what were the key events from 1999-2007 that could have shaped Putin's perspective regarding relations with the US, to the point that he felt invading Georgia (and all other hostility since) was the correct long-term strategy? That didn't happen in a vacuum. I leave researching this as an exercise for the reader (hint: you can dig through some of my older comments as I've covered it a few times...)

[vorpalhex]

Yes because Russia was so worried about us shooting down their nukes they had to invade.. Georgia?

[CapricornNoble]

Yes? Their options were invade Georgia BEFORE it's a NATO member, or allow a NATO-member Georgia to potentially host ABM interceptors at some point in the future, at which point they wouldn't be able to invade without fighting all of NATO. From a risk management perspective, for Russian leadership the choice is obvious.