"The US intentionally denied Russia its own Monroe Doctrine. Did you ever wonder why only the US has a “Monroe Doctrine” and if any other large country like Russia wants their own safe zone like the Monroe Doctrine offers, US media says they are crazy and unrealistic? The US demands North, South and Central America all to itself, no Russian or Chinese military forces, but if Russia wants the same buffer around itself, it must be only deeply delusional or paranoid? After the US led Ukraine Coup of 2014, Ukraine clearly became hostile to Russia (with “four high-ranking members who be legitimately labeled neofascists”).

"Imagine if Russia financed a successful Coup in Mexico which became openly hostile to the US – imagine Russia using “rocket installations in Mexico to conduct live-fire training exercises to practice destroying military targets inside America?” Would the US have any legitimate reason to feel provoked? Of course, the US would demand those installations be removed. Simple. No country can install missiles on our hemisphere, but we can put them wherever we want? This is high-school bully justice, or American foreign policy style. As Putin said in 2021, “Are we putting our rockets on the borders of the United states? No, we’re not. It’s the US with its rockets coming to our doorstep.”

-- Randall Wallace on the new book How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How U.S. and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe by Benjamin Abelow