The end of WW1 saw the creating of the Sykes-Picot agreement that carved up the middle east and made a bigger damn mess that plunged the middle east into constant turmoil that literally exists to this very day. All Russia has to show for their middle east injection the past hundred years is control of Al-Assad's oil fields. They tried to claim more back in 2015 by trying to take over an American military base with a Russian private militia called "Wagner Group". It went bad. Really, really bad for them as many were sent back in body bags. American Military picked up their radio calls for help which never came "We're getting our asses kicked....HELP!".
Putin and his dumb ilk (they are dumb. They really are. Putin will not put brainiacs to run his mafia state) did not take their stolen state proceeds and put it back in their country. They literally pulled a Ferdinand Marcos and kept it and left scraps for the Russian Mafia that invested those stolen Russian proceeds into their international organized crime syndicates in L.A. and Long Island (what you saw in "Training Day" when detective "Alonzo" get gunned down by the Russian Mafia).
Russia may be circling Kyiv, but what we grew up with as "The Bear" is actually the fall (again) of a small black bear. 1100 year empire that controls ten percent of actual global dry land is actually falling apart and it was all self inflicted because God forbid they allowed their newly formed Federation and Constitution to fully be implemented.
