Putin set out to rebuild the Russian empire...
This is an imaginary history of Eastern Europe that you made up in order to portray Russia as the aggressor.
I recently posted a message that addresses these drug-induced hallucinations that constantly plagues super patriotic american clowns:
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They don't want to face the recent history of eastern Europe, Beale, Couchpotato.
They don't want to admit that Russia dismantled the Iron Curtain, the Soviet Union itself and extended an olive branch to the West only to get hostility, NATO expansionism and Cold War revanchism in return.
In 1991 the West could have chosen to treat Russia as a partner, starting a process to integrate the country with the European Union and NATO. Instead, the US and Europe decided to treat Russia as the loser of the Cold War, excluding the country from the political, economic and military structures of western Europe. They decided to keep Russia as a source of cheap raw materials and subject the country to a military encirclement.
The reality check says:
Russia didn't commit any aggression against its neighbors from 1991 to 2008 (first reaction to NATO expansion).
If they recognize this fact they will be forced to admit that the military enlargement was a completely gratuitous, unprovoked act of hostility towards a country that had just peacefully dismantled an empire.
This is the crucible super patriotic american clowns find themselves in:
They desperately want to believe NATO expansion was a reaction to post-soviet Russia's military aggression against her neighbors so that the West/NATO can't be portrayed as a bully but the
REAL RECENT HISTORY OF EASTERN EUROPE stubbornly keeps rubbing on their faces there was no russian aggression after the "great reset" of the end of the Cold War while the plans to expand NATO started in 1991 even before the USSR was officially dismantled.
So what do they do when they are forced to concede that the narrative they love so much does not correspond to
THE REAL HISTORY OF EASTERN EUROPE that happened outside their heads?
Instead of adjusting their narrative to the real history of Europe, they "adjust" the real history of Europe to their narrative.
In other words, they create an imaginary history of eastern Europe, a history that only exist in their heads in order to portray post-soviet Russia as the aggressor.
That's why message boards, despite being good fun, are a big waste of time.
Nobody can ever hope to convince anybody of anything.
How can you ever expect to convince anyone of anything when most people are willing to create an entire parallel universe complete with an alternate history of eastern Europe in order to "validate" their narrative?