"Clearly, you have no understanding of real politics and how it works in the real world."
Clearly you have an understanding of real politics in real world, in reverse order. As said in my previous post, Putin did not offer neighbours anything attractive to lure them. He had no political ideology or economic plan to develop Russia and attract others. US was not ideal, selfish in many occasions, but it preached democracy and free-market trading helped many who in turn became successful.
Instead , with Ukraine Putin bribed Yanukovych, Medvedchuk and Saldo to destabilise and setup insurgency in Ukraine. In Germany, Putin bribed the ruling Social Democrats top to bottom and organised sex parties for them in St St Petersburg. Same with Austria and Switzerland, list goes on. As Putin got to power in 2000, massive cash started gushing in from the oil discoveries of the 1970/80's took Putin by surprise and blinded him. All he did was dreaming of money, set up 50/50 with oligarchs, and became the richest man on earth. Rest is history. You dont get that in propaganda you read.
