All-right, let's get this started again.
Here's a very good, in my opinion, explanation of why Russia annexed Crimea and started to support the rebels in Ukraine.
What do you think?
It's filled to the brim with tu quoque, has a major non sequitur (asking 'why the Western agression' immediately after talking about the annexation of Crimea), repeats old cliches about the West (these cliches are true to a degree, but rehashing them shows a horrible lack of wit), and has a few very hard to believe points (Russia as a whole just wants to leave the Soviet past behind? Really?).
Oh, and it en passant claims Ukraine should not be a sovereign country.
The man who wrote this is not a good writer, I'll give you that, and also likes whataboutism too much, but he's right when he describes the current Russian mentality - most of us, aside from a few hardcore communists and imperialists, really don't want to have to do anything with the USSR. It's sometimes remembered fondly (and other times it has megatons of mud poured on it), but overall, modern Russians couldn't care less about reviving the old empire. But what they do have, and you could've noticed that from yours truly, is a very strong national pride (or madness if you wish) that drives them - us - to defend our own. In today's world, this means that the majority of Russians were against the Ukraine joining NATO and supported the annexation of Crimea, because it is mostly Russian, and we didn't want our own peole to join the enemy, however irrational and Cold War-ish that sounds. The reason behind the Donbass rebellion was similar - people who were pro-Russian simply didn't want to join NATO, the people back in Russia supported them, and Putin was forced to keep up his image and go with the popular opinion.
And so the reason behind this bloodshed is simple, irrational belief in some transient qualities that differ between the two warring factions. Not that unusual for a war, is it?
Seriously, Knit, your standards are sinking...
Cut me some slack, Helgo, it was 5 am in Edinburgh when I found that article