Originally Posted by
melmothtw
When it comes to Russia's neighbours wanting to join NATO, I suspect a lot can be explained by a mindset which is profoundly coloured by past experiences, not least during the 20th century when the Communists reached and occupied the gates of all of their capital cities.
There, fixed it for you.
That's a fair point. And maybe the right approach is indeed unblinking robustness, given the risk that Vlad would see anything less as weakness. But even then it's still worth recognising the various factors that drive the other side, especially when the stakes are so high. Whether that understanding means that leaving the door ajar to a degree of messy face-saving compromise could have a part to play here I'm happy to let better qualified people than me decide.