"If you really want to wreck Russia, what you should do is to encourage it to try to conquer Ukraine. Putin is much too smart to try to do that." John Mearsheimer, 2015.
Today you and me can debate what "conquer" means, but if policy makers follow his advice, this war won't happen at all. I think that's what really matters.
Nonsense! Putin had always planned to rebuild the USSR. Ukraine, Moldova,... he was going to get them back piece by piece.
Putin's argument that Nato was a threat is just a distraction. There's nothing Nato could do if Ukraine joined Nato that Nato couldn't already do without Ukraine.
Mearsheimer's argument that Russia should be left alone to violate the sovereignty of her neighbours is just bonkers. Thank goodness he was ignored.
https://twitter.com/SKalyvas/status/1498073083197931529