NOTE: Here’s the rest of the answers - couldn’t send it all in one piece for some reason. I suspect there’s a 10,000 character limit that just simply wasn’t clearly established for the end user.
I am also curious what western sources have seemed the most accurate to you about Russia in general, if any at all.
Now for probably the most interesting answer - no, they’re all really wrong.
The first few months after the war were really full of all sorts of ideas to explain the Putin’s invasion - some resources hidden in the Ukrainian territory, so the attack is about profits and shit, or that he is trying to conquer the entirety of Europe, or he’s trying to rebuild the USSR, etc., etc. None of these points ever had any bit of truth in them, which is easily verified by the modern history of Ukraine and Russia where Putin has attempted, time after time, to put Ukraine in his pocket, just like he did with Belarus; Euromaidan and another peaceful/color revolution that happened in Ukraine were, in large part, caused by Putin’s attempts to install a pocket president (Yanukovich) that would do as Putin pleases - after Euromaidan, when Yanukovich fled, Putin has had enough and annexed Crimea, probably out of spite and as a “fuck you” to Ukraine, also warranting covert operations to destabilize the more Russia-leaning regions, probably for the same reason more than anything else. As a great bonus to his regime, Putin gained what every dictator loves and craves for - a war, an enemy on the outside, a collective “them” to tell his country to hate and despise and avoid turning into; as an even greater bonus, he managed to sell the annexation as some kind of people’s will to join and be with Russia, but as time went by, the craze died off because despite all of that, the Russian populace didn’t enjoy a better life - somehow things got gradually worse, with pricing coming up thanks to sanctions and counter-sanctions, but salaries haven’t, corruption ate up more and more, and all sorts of relationship with the outside world got worse and worse. A stupid, worthless dictator once again had nothing of value to offer to the country that he usurped - even less than before. Starting a full-blown war is just what this type of people need - an excuse, a distraction, an attempt to divert all attention away from himself; and probably, again, just out of spite, just to make Ukraine and its people suffer for the psychopath he is.
And that’s it, basically. No great ambition, no secret plot, no benefits or profits or great outcomes - just anger and spite that they wouldn’t agree to live under his boot. That’s something that virtually no outlet understands (Maxim Katz, again, being the exception, but he’s not a western outlet either).
Welp, hope it answers at least something! ;)
