Bush Jr, who unilaterally withdrew from the START treaty in 2002[1], and pushed to establish ABM sites in eastern Europe in 2007? That's considered "normalizing"?[2][3] And Putin, who protested both of these actions as destabilizing, is somehow considered the not-sane one in this narrative?

>Ukraine has depleted Russias military stockpiles and their National Wealth Fund. Russia was weaker than people thought.

"Russia is never as strong as she appears....and Russia is never as weak as she appears." -- multiple attributions including Bismark and Churchill

Russia was supposed to run out of ballistic missiles...in summer 2022.[4] They've also likely taken more casualties than the entire active duty strength of the UK, French, and German land forces combined (73K + 118K + 63K ~= 250k) while still keeping a cohesive force capable of offensive combat operations in the field, which has GROWN since the war started to somewhere around 550-650K (up from ~200-350K in 2022).[5][6] Russia only appears weak by the standard established by the US 1990-2005....but the US is essentially a super-saiyan and functioned on a different plane of existence from every other military in the world.

[1] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unilateral-withdrawal-fro...

[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna21262371

[3] https://www.insightturkey.com/articles/missile-defense-in-eu...

[4] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/01/vladimir-p...

[5] https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4589095-russian-army-grow...

[6] https://archive.is/zQ6CU