So Russia Has Invaded Ukraine: Who is to Blame?

It Ain't Just Putins' own Decisionmaking at Play, Here

Russia has now officially invaded Ukraine. So now it's time to lay down some of the worlds' figures which are responsible for this mess.

1. Putin: Ultimately, the executive decision to invade Russia's neighbor was made by Putin himself. No other single individual is more centrally responsible for this crisis. This is being glossed over by some of the more ardent "Hate on NATO" figures at the moment.

2. Joe Biden: Joe Biden's weakness and lack of leadership is the spark which prompted Putin's decision. An emboldened Russia realizes that NATO is now fracturing into factions; in part because of the vain egotism of figures like Erdogan of Turkey and Macron of France, but these fractures are mostly due to the lack of a central unifying power (the United States) being able to hold singular command over Western military power. Biden effectively punted the Nordstream issue to the Germans and now everyone will pay a hefty price in the form of even higher inflation; which Biden is currently using as a political win, pretending the last year of his abysmal Bidenomics never existed.

3. China: Believe it or not, the continuously more imperialist rhetoric from Beijing has emboldened Russia too. Also, China is Russia's much more wealthy backer. Putin does not care about sanctions unless they extend to China (which finances BRICS at large) and that is unlikely since so much Western money is held by China.

4. The legacy media: The Western media is, much like the Russian media, beating the drums of war, and profits directly from conflict. They are also happy because Biden's State of the Union can now be a referendum on a foreign crisis the United States is not even a direct and explicit participant in. They will case him as a war-time president and attempt to demand the public fall in line out of a sense of "patriotism" and to "defend democracy"- selling points that won't work if the public is reluctant to accept the concept of increased US involvement.

5. Macron: The French president attempted to play a central diplomatic role between Russia and Ukraine and failed. This power play was borne out of the lack of a strong central US role in Western leadership due to the weakness of steward president Biden, but Macron probably should have known better.

Obviously absent blame: Donald Trump and the Ukrainians. The media is trying to convince people that Putin was somehow emboldened by Trump and that his statement regarding Putins' strategy as "genius" amounts to supporting his war (omitting the context of deriding Biden as weak and incapable, of course), and Russia is currently busy trying to cast the Ukrainians as "nazis"- neither claim holds even an ounce of truth.