When I asked for concrete evidence that Western actions threatened Russia and I needed to read two whole books, something doesn't add up. You should easily find evidence, like the collective Western countries destroying Russian infrastructure, hacking of Russian organizations, killing of civilians... something.
Especially when one of which highlights Russia shooting down the flight MH17 and killing 300 people, very much like the shooting of the Azerbaijan airplane which Russia denied emergency landing - probably in an attempt to make it crash to destroy the evidence. With the flight MH17, there were pictures taken by Russians proudly on top of the debris, and this time around medals were awarded.
As for Scott Horton's book, he sure knows how to repeat Russian propaganda points, including the "not one inch of NATO expansion" lie, in the classical conspiracy theory fashion, just the description says it all:
"Over and over, U.S. government officials and their mainstream media allies called Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine an “unprovoked attack.”"
It's funny that a lot of these "Russian mouthpieces" have something in common: only Russia "the victim" and the USA "the aggressor" have agency, and the remaining sovereign countries and their millions of citizens are NPCs, with no will or History of their own.
Long story short: Sovereign countries got fed up with Genocide and aggression at the hands of Russians, who now believe that multipolarity is a rightful green card for unchecked coercion of neighboring countries.
If you want a deeper understanding I recommend the work of Stephen Kotkin, an actual Academic and Historian respected in academia and a reference all over the world (funny enough, even in Russia).
I too was once like you: pro West, anti-Putin. On the Ukraine affair way back in 2014, I was outraged that Putin took Crimea etc etc.
So what changed my point of view? Russiagate. That nonsense the Democrat Party propagated about Putin interfering in the election to get Trump elected. I also found out that it wasn't Russian operatives shooting at the Maidan protestors from the top of a building. It was neo Nazi Ukrainians. They are small but ruthless so their influence belies their size. But I should've known better because I already knew about the lies the West told to go war in Iraq in 2003. WMD's in Iraq was a big fat lie. And US Officials went on television and told these lies to the whole world. Knowing they were lies.
So my point? The West does Propaganda too. Stephen Kotkin works for the Hoover Institute. The Hoover Institute has an agenda to promote American "free-market" capitalism around the world.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/hoover-institution/
Why do you dismiss anyone in the West who is against what the West is doing in Ukraine as "Russian mouthpieces"? But you never question whether Western sources as "American Hegemonic" propaganda? Is it not possible for Westerners to look at what is happening in Ukraine and conclude that it is folly?
Surely, you are aware of PNAC? (Project for a New American Century).
>Sovereign countries got fed up with Genocide and aggression at the hands of Russians, who now believe that multipolarity is a rightful green card for unchecked coercion of neighboring countries.
--Gaza? To tell you the truth I'm fed up with American backed Genocide. What has Russia (under Putin) done that is worse than this? Do you not think that what goes on in Gaza is an all time low for the West? Surely you do.
To come to an understanding of what's been happening to Ukraine -- you need to focus on Ukraine, and its history, along with the history of the region. Especially in regard to what all of these countries have had to put up with for the past 400 years.
Not the US, and its never-ending internal scandals and naval-gazing shenanigans. The idea that stuff like the Russiagate can begin to matter in comparison to what's actually happening in Ukraine ironically reflects a profound Western-centric bias.
Your secondary error is to adopt as an axiom that "anti-Putin" and "pro-West" are on a common axis, and part of a zero-sum game.
And hence to be anti-Putin is to be "pro-West", and a sucker for its propaganda.
I also found out that it wasn't Russian operatives shooting at the Maidan protestors from the top of a building. It was neo Nazi Ukrainians.
Except you didn't "find this out". Your read it on a blog somewhere, and it never occurred to you to dig behind this assertion and fact-check it.
Edit: it looks like your account is using HN primarily for political/ideological battle, which is also a line at which we ban accounts. I don't want to ban you, so if you'd please correct for this, that would be good. See https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... for past explanations of this point.
Edit: you've been breaking the site guidelines in other places too, unfortunately, and it also looks like your account is dangerously close to using HN primarily for political/ideological battle, which is also a line at which we ban accounts. I don't want to ban you, so if you'd please correct for this, that would be good. See https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... for past explanations of this point.
