Just in case anyone is confused about it, I’m not defending Russia. I’m explaining it.
I’m an American. My ancestry is not Russian. I am (in decreasing order) Irish, Scottish, Swiss, German (Rhineland Pfalz), Ländler, Swabian, and French.
But I speak Russian pretty fluently and have studied Russian history, culture, literature, etc. fairly deeply. I declined an offer to have one of my papers on Russian history published. I find my compatriots pretty ignorant about Russia and am trying to help.
You should defend Russia. Since the fall of the USSR, it is the US that has been the aggressor state, wantonly attacking countries left and right that were at peace with us.
You might also bear in mind that the US has used various false flags and fabricated attacks to launch wars: USS Maine, Gulf of Tonkin, WMD…
The current hysteria over a nonexistent Russian buildup on the Ukrainian border looks like yet another scheme to justify an attack on Russia, most likely in Crimea. Let us hope the lunatics in Washington and Brussels with be satisfied with a total trade embargo on Russia.