Like most other stories. Tracing its development over the years, and all the complex events that led up to it, is challenging even to the best and brightest geopolitical and diplomatic minds there are. In his wanton killing of innocent Ukrainian civilians, and in his indiscriminate shelling of Ukraine, which is rapidly reducing it to rubble, there are definitely no moral excuses for what Putin is doing. The other side to the Russia - Ukraine story is, of course, being presented by Tucker Carlson - that Putin feels threatened by NATO expansionism, and left without any buffer states that are at least neutral in their geopolitical orientation, like India, for example. Even past US secretaries of defense have cautioned against excessive NATO expansionism. And so, the US has its buffer states, which are its NATO allies, whereas Putin does not really have any. But - and this is a big but - there are many other complicating factors to consider, Comrade Carlson. Like the inherent right of every nation to seek independence and self determination, and to make their own choices as to which kind of government they want to live under. This may be seen by those on the other side as biased, but we in the West believe that most people would naturally want to live in a democracy rather than in a totalitarian state like Russia. And this in itself has driven a lot of what Russia fears as NATO expansionism. The other thing that complicates the whole Russia - Ukraine story has been the whole thing with the Russian leaning oligarchs, and Russian leaning corrupt puppet rulers, like Viktor Yanukovich, who was one of Paul Manafort's clients for many years. It seems like Russia first tried to infiltrate and take over Ukraine economically, via oligarchs linked to Putin, but then they were soundly rejected by Ukrainians at the polls. To me, it seems like Russian aggression and expansionism has been at least as bad as that which Putin accuses us of. Also, Comrade CArlson could just be playing the ratings game; unfortunately, his dumbed down audiences at FOX seem to be unable to think critically for themselves and to research and dig up the other side of the story he is presenting to them.
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