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According to polls, more than half of Russian citizens yearn for the glory days of the USSR, a time when they were living under a totalitarian regime and were unable to speak freely and had their friends and family arrested randomly by secret police and thrown in gulags. The weird part is, I get why they'd feel that way.

After the USSR fell, Russia tried to reshape itself into a democracy, and it failed spectacularly. The ruble went to shit, Russia's oligarchy had no interest in helping shape a market economy, and the people in power just couldn't manage to craft a functioning democracy. Putin was among those unhappy about suddenly having to give citizens freedom instead of an icy stare and a solemn promise from the bottom of his heart to help them go fuck themselves. Once he got elected and ensured he would be president until further notice, he made it his mission to let former Soviet nations know he was coming for them. It started when he stole Crimea from Ukraine. Since then, fear has spread throughout the rest of the nearby former Soviet nations. And it's all at least mostly because of NATO.

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Every former Soviet country either is or wants to be a part of NATO, the global alliance that includes the U.S. and Great Britain that ensures that if any of its member nations are attacked by outsiders, every other member will help. Putin loathes NATO. They represent a coalition of liberal Western ideologies that Putin hates on principle (more on that later). To the former Soviet countries, NATO represents being a part of a global community of big brothers who can be called on to stop Russia from bullying them. Meanwhile, Putin is playing the role of the jealous ex-boyfriend who needs a restraining order slapped on him because he keeps showing up at his ex's house holding a knife.