He would like the west to allow him to do what he wants without scrutiny, there is a bit of a demented cold war era mentality involved too. Putin wants to return Russia to what he thinks were the glory days of the soviet union and create a dynasty for himself.
@ididntknow no argument there. but the usa isn't a potential threat in europe right now, nor have they demolished modern cities packed with people. at least not recently.
Hypocrisy is everywhere, but we shouldn't let that distract from the chance to stand up to serious warcrimes taking place right now.
@ididntknow The only way to disprove their stories is to tell those victims that they're liars. Many years ago, 108 people also stepped forward to say they were physically assaulted by the Russian army as an act of intimidation.
So either you must think rape is an acceptable terms of war or denounce the actions, only two options.
Putin wants to take over as many neighboring sovereign nations as possible so he can re-assemble the old Soviet Union.
But Putin seems to be forgetting a three-way treaty known as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
Essentially, Ukraine agreed to give up all its nuclear weapons to Russia in exchange for safety from a U.S. or Russian invasion. Russia's invasion of Ukraine violates that treaty. And as a signatory to that 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the U.S. has a definite interest in righting Putin's current wrongs.
In the final version of the deal, Russia promised not to attack Ukraine. While the U.S. and the U.K. assured Ukraine they would aid if it was attacked by Russia, that promised aid did not guarantee military support like a NATO country would receive.
In 2009, Russia and the U.S. announced that the assurances in the Budapest Memorandum would continue to remain in effect in the future.
In short, Russia promised specifically NOT to invade Ukraine, and the U.S. promised specifically to ASSIST Ukraine if the treaty were ever violated. And that's what the U.S. is doing now.
@ididntknow Actually Putin said himself he wanted Russia to return to the Soviet Union, so that's not correct, he actually stated like 10 different reasons why aside from NATO. He's a pathological liar.
@SatanBurger so America / EU, UK didn’t provoke the war in Ukraine then did it, by trying to get Ukraine into NATO, and the EU, Do you know anything about the Cuban crisis ?
Who knows for sure, but reassembling the Russian Empire & Soviet Union would seem reasonable objectives over time. At least one of his underlings wants russia to dominate whole continent so not just Putin objective.
He wants Russia to be the top world power. At least he did. I think now he just wants to salvage his country's reputation because the whole Ukraine thing has been an embarrassment.
@Darksideinthenight2 Ah, that's entirely up to him. If he didn't turn Russia into North Korea XXL the countries bordering Russia wouldn't look at the west for security.
Look how bad it ended for Ukraine, trying to stay neutral.