Mick Hartley

The idea that somehow the West shares the blame for Ukraine lingers on like a bad smell. We didn't take sufficient account of Putin's genuine security concerns, apparently. Was Ukraine about to invade Russia? Of course not. Was Finland? Have troops been massing on the Estonian border in preparation for the march on Moscow? 

The truth is that Russia doesn't like the idea of independent democratic states on its border. Before the collapse of the Soviet empire – for Putin "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” – Russia controlled Eastern Europe, and made sure there were no threatening moves towards freedom or democracy. Now the idea that Putin has "genuine security concerns" gives credence to the absurd notion that Russia should still have a say in the politics of its neighbouring countries. The rest of the world has to live alongside countries whose political systems it may not like: only Russia has some kind of special dispensation to have a say in the politics of adjacent independent nations, which, you know are independent – and if its concerns are not dealt with, well, we must share some of the blame.

Though, sadly, only Belarus is as compliant as they'd like.

As for the "dangerous" expansion of NATO, the former Warsaw Pact states and the Baltic states demanded it. And you can understand, seeing what's happening to Ukraine, why they might want to do that. NATO poses no threat to Russia: only to its expansionist dreams. And only one side is responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, and that's Russia under Putin.

For more details, see my post last week, where Pavel Stroilov dismantled Putin's NATO claims.

Here's Janet Daley in the Telegraph:

Given the mass neurosis that now passes for Western political conscience I suppose this was inevitable. But it is still shocking to hear apparently rational commentators claim that somehow all of this horror – the bombing of civilian neighbourhoods, the missile attacks on maternity hospitals, the threat to remove a democratic government – is our fault.

It was not Russia’s maniacal fixation on an ancient mission to unite with its Ukrainian brethren that drove this onslaught. Or even the more cynical fear of its leaders that their nation was being eclipsed in the global game. No, the real cause of this unspeakable mayhem is “Nato expansionism” – which is to say, the desire of Ukraine to seek the protection of the West and the West’s inclination to offer it.

Absurdly, this desire on the one side and willingness to consider such a request on the other, have been given overwhelming credence by the very Russian assault which was supposedly provoked by the existence of them.

In other words, Russia is waging an armed attack on the population of a country which had the presumption to claim that it needed protection from a Russian attack. Have I got that right?

That's the logic, yes.