I am not going to pretend to be an expert on Russia. I don’t speak Russian, I am not of Russian heritage, and I have never been to Russia.

I am no fan of Vladimir Putin, nor do I believe that Russia’s invasion and occupation of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine is warranted or even legal, the bombings of innocents in Aleppo are excusable, or Moscow’s support for tyrants like Assad or Maduro just in any way.

But I do not believe Russia to be an “evil empire”. I do not think that Russia acts in the way it does because it wants to destroy the world, murder women and children, or subjugate millions into poverty and oppression.

Russia acts - rather, responds - to the geopolitics of the world it has found itself in since the collapse of the USSR in 1991. With the West, led by the United States, doing its victory lap around the world and urging economic and political reforms in the new Russian Federation that eventually led to economic disaster in the late 1990’s under Boris Yeltsin, the Russian Bear had no choice but to attempt to break out of its confinement.

Imagine if the reverse situation occurred. Imagine if Russia put tens of thousands of soldiers on the US-Mexico border, or had a naval base in the Dominican Republic. Imagine if Moscow created an alliance of states whose sole purpose was to limit the United States’ ability to exercise any influence over its neighbors or region. Imagine if trade was limited to just a few close partners whilst Russia entered into free trade agreements with the rest of the first world.

You wouldn’t like that.

Enter, Mr Putin.

For better or for worse, the United States has backed Russia into a corner over the last two decades, forcing a former superpower to cow-tow to the demands of Presidents Clinton and Bush, and, essentially, be humiliated on the world stage. This once-great, culturally rich empire dissolved at the hands of the West, and a people so proud of their history and nation forced into breadlines and unemployment after the Western “advisors” instructed the Yeltsin regime on economic reforms that went too far, too quickly.

Mr Putin saw an opportunity in the despair. He was able to halt the reforms, reassemble the Russian state and capitalise on Western weakness to convince his countrymen that Russia could once again be great. He “Made Russia Great Again”.

He rushed to the aide of Russian-speakers in Georgia in 2008 in a military intervention whereby Russia essentially annexed parts of the northern Caucasus country. He wowed the world with the 2014 Sochi Olympics, only to invade Crimea simultaneously after his ally was ousted by the opposition. All this, again, in the name of defending the Russian majority population on the peninsula.

Moscow then began supplying weapons to separatist fighters in Ukraine’s east who are sympathetic to Russia and long to see their part of the country become a part of Russia.

The West was shocked and duly condemned Putin and slapped harsh sanctions on the Russian economy. Though these sanctions have surely hurt the people of Russia, they support Putin more than ever. Why? They’re proud of him. The Russian people are able to hold their heads high once more and be proud that their country can compete with the United States and NATO in Europe.

Then came Syria. President Bashar al-Assad has long been an ally of Vladimir Putin. He brought stability to the region and allowed Russia to use its ports in the Mediterranean. When his friend seemed down for the count and President Obama drew his “red line in the sand”, the Russian President could watch no more. He sent his airforce and elite soldiers to Syria to help the embattled President combat “terrorists” in the country (read terrorists as US-backed rebels who may or may not be aligned with al-Qaeda).

He then brokered a deal in which Russia would assume the responsibility for Assad’s chemical weapons, and promptly removed them from Syria and destroyed them. Not even the United States could do that.

Yahoo News US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meet in Geneva for talks on Syria in 2015.

He got American pundits talking - “Maybe we should work with Russia in Syria instead of opposing them at every turn?” So, Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov held talks in Geneva to find a peaceful solution in Syria. But the Americans insisted that Assad must go. Talks broke down, and Russia stepped up its game.

It worked.

Assad seems poised to remain in power as the US began to focus exclusively on ISIL targets in Syria and cut off supplies to the rebel groups. Turkey too came to the table, and even though the Turks and Russians have a complicated history, the two sides managed to broker a ceasefire that has already lasted longer than any previous agreement.

Meanwhile, the US wasn’t even at the table. Who has the peace prize again?

Lastly, we get to the US presidential election. It is not uncommon for nations to try and influence elections in other countries and if the United States is going to sit there and cry foul when we meddled in elections around the world for three-quarters of a century, then that is hypocrisy at its finest. I did not vote for Donald Trump. I voted for Hillary Clinton. She won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. But Trump won the Electoral College, and so far, intelligence agencies have not found any evidence that any interference in the election by Russia directly resulted in Trump winning the White House. They very well may have hacked the DNC emails, but that was not why Hillary lost, and it’s time for people to realise that. She ran an uninspired campaign and was unable to shake off the perception that she was a polished, career politician. So, Trump won.

Like I said at the start of this article, I am not a supporter of Vladimir Putin. I believe in a liberal world order, and I believe that many of Putin’s actions have violated international and human rights laws.

But if we are going to criticise his actions, we must fully understand why he takes them. We pushed Russia into a corner, and then prodded them with a stick. Perhaps it’s time to find real ways of cooperating with Russia, for the sake of us all.