@jbrownesq @randahl
Your "historical literacy" needs work. There was a time when Russia was about to become our friend. There have been NATO exercises with Russia, and there was talk of Russia joining NATO. Until Putin made it clear he expected special treatment and didn't actually respect other countries (he called them "countries that don't matter").
Even then, Europe eagerly traded with Russia, and pretended for a long time that Putin wasn't all that bad. He only acting like a brutal dictator in order to repair the economy, and it was a domestic issue that wasn't really any of our business. Besides, he had oil to sell. You may have noticed that some European countries are still buying oil from Russia. That's how hard it is to sever those ties.
It's been Putin who has constantly tried to undermine democracies, fund the rise of fascism in the West, and assassinate his critics even on our soil. When he invaded Georgia, it was not a domestic issue anymore, and still we did nothing.
Eastern European countries have been warning about this for decades, but the arrogant West ignored it, and insisted on believing Russia was going to be a normal democracy now because we had won the Cold War.
Then Putin invaded Ukraine because he felt it slipping from his grasp. That's when the alarm bells finally went off, and still, much of Europe wasn't willing to stop funding Russia.
That whole WW3 enmity is coming entirely from Putin. He's the one who keeps looking for confrontation, resorts to aggression, and keeps talking about a war against the West. Because he believes that will keep him in power. And you're legitimising him by repeating his propaganda.
