Good morning David,Thank you for you reply. While I completely understand your questions and comments, they do not answer the question. There again, I did ask the incorrect question. I have come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that Putin does not fear NATO or its possible expansion, his most fervent wish is to bring back the USSR at any cost. To make Russia "great again".I was reading some interesting articles in CBS News that provide additional substance to my conclusions.One, is entitled: "What we need to know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict as invasion begins" dated 27 February 2022https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russia-invasion-what-you-need-to-know/It starts from the late 1700 when Ukraine came part of the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great. It also explains the Holodomor.The second one is entitled: "The long history of Russia's efforts to subjugate Ukraine" of 27 February 2022https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-history-of-subjugating-ukraine/Here is an extract of the latter which I think provides a very good explanation, current and historical:......"The attempt to eliminate Ukrainian-ness and the sense of it, of a separate identity and the sense of nationhood, has really been a Russian policy since the 19th century," said Applebaum. "It was a Czarist policy. Later it was Stalin's policy, and now it's Putin's policy."Putin believes that an independent, sovereign, democratic Ukraine is a threat to him personally and to his personal power. The one thing that Putin genuinely fears is grassroots democratic movements, and the most important way that he can push back against them is to eliminate that Ukrainian state.""Are a lot of Ukrainians today thinking, 'Not again'?" asked Rocca."There's a famous poem by Shevchenko, the Ukrainian national poet called 'Calamity Again.' And [it] begins exactly with this idea: just as we were beginning to get along, calamity strikes again. Its democracy was solidifying. Its sense of nationhood was growing stronger. And now this disaster has befallen them and this feeling that they may be dragged back into some horrific Stalin-era or Czarist-era nightmare must be tormenting a lot of them."
Ivonne Holliday ● 1195d