Yes, the soviets spent millions supporting communist and green parties in Europe until their fall. When soviets Russia became whatever it now is, the US figured the cold war was still on and Ukraine was one of the more likely to flip. Let's be clear, Russians don't fear the West, their dictatorship does. Plenty of people in Russia support dismantling the Putin system if they could.
I know the relation Putin/Ukraine very well. I also know very well how Putin is and what his intentions are. I know exactly how he went from a small irrelevant spy in East Germany to President. In the period 2012-2013 when the riots against Yanukovych started, I was 17 times in Kiev. I was also there when the first big manifestations against Yanukovych were held at Maidan and when Maidan became the center of the protest. I was not there for political reasons, but I have travelled a lot of countries in East Europe decades ago already when they were still controlled by the Russians. I was also in Crimea before and after the Russians invaded it. Really invading Ukraine will damage Russia also very hard. It will be a Pyrrhic victory. And Russia will lose their credibility for a few decades. It will be a new cold war period.
What credibility you talking about? Russia cares? Sanctions are toothless. Look back at the sanctions after 2014 Ukraine crisis. It did not hurt Russia much at all. Now with the new sanctions, they will hurt both Russians and Europeans. Only Americans care less. The sanctions will push Russia more toward China. The problem is that, Biden and NATO will never agree to Russian security demand that Ukraine remains under the sphere of Russia and will never agree to keep Ukraine out of NATO. But Russia wants the buffer zone. Look at the map. Ukraine is like a huge dagger into Russia's belly. If NATO has that front, then Belarus will fall next. Then the entire Western front will be exposed to NATO. This is complete game changer. This is a red line to Russia. Russia may even want to carve out the East bank of the Dniepper River to create a buffer zone. This is even worse than facing Hitler in the WW II. The same thing with North Korea. North Korea is the buffer zone between US military and China. If there is any coup or any assassination of North Korean leader, China will invade and make sure that a friendly leader at the top. It is unthinkable that China will allow hostile force at its border.
Russia needs a small victory to get out of this dilemma. Putin will declare victory and the Russian people will applaud. The question is what small victory will the West accept. Take a different outlier scenario. Russia invades while China simultaneously invades Taiwan. What will the West do?
Since we had to throw in WW2 into this mix. I'm laughing now at remembering how Patton got shit-canned by congress, etc. for 'offending America's Russian allies'.
Georgia again.....oil producers are long futures. Biden is globalist policeman = sanction sledgehammer.
Dude, Nazi Germany was bad. Really bad. Had the Russians back then not put up a fight, and the Nazis not made the glaring error of winter attack, the war may have gone a whole different direction.