It has been an interesting switcheroo. And not all Republicans have switched, but the ones that have and are now pro Russia are even more surprising.
Russia and Russians want to be part of Europe (its a European country in reality) but keep getting pushed to CCP.
When USSR was falling, US promised Gorbachev he could relax because NATO would not encroach on its borders.
Yet that's exactly what the State Dept has wanted to do (with Eastern Euros pushing too)
The boys and girls from the think tanks, DOD etc couldn't let their anti-USSR careers collapse.
That unelected, sociopathic troll Victoria Nuland and McCain ran a color revolution (Maidan Uprising) in Ukraine in 2013- 2014.
They got a pro NATO (but anti-nuke) president elected in Ukraine (Petro Poroshenko).
Poroshenko lost to Zelesnky because of rampant corruption, bad economy etc.
Zelensky did not even speak Ukrainian (spoke Russian) and he was kind of a mystery to the people but was was taken as "anti-corruption."
People realized corruption was still high and he crashed in polls
Zelensky wanted to join EU and NATO and he threatened acquiring nukes if no NATO for Ukraine.
NATO already had troops in Ukraine training its military.
Putin was having none of that NATO/Nukes 12 minutes from Moscow and sent troops to take Zelensky away (and remember US had its people running things after 2014) .
The incursion was not meant as a full invasion.
Russia doesn't need another country to run - keeping NATO/Nukes out was the goal.
Russia sent in a lot of old vehicles and meekly trained troops as a distraction while Chechens (known as best urban fighters) were sent after Zelensky.
Well Russian forces met with the NATO trained/armed forces and got more than they expected.
The US stoked Zelensky up wilt billions and US senators called for Putin murder and Russia then beefed-up and sent the real military and equipment in and Ukraine has been getting whalloped ever since.
Ukraine and Russia were ready to agree to end of hostilities but US and Boris Johnson nixed that.
So Russia got a million men into Ukraine or near border and they use massive amounts of mortars, rockets, mines and precision weapons to smash anything that moves.
The original Ukrainian military is long gone and the best officers, leaders, fighters are gone.
Press gangs take pizza delivery boys and puts them in the killing fields.
I do not think people "like" Putin per se.
They are just tired of unelected US meddlers pulling other countries down and creating bigger problems for America's treasury and its people in uniform.
Its easy to understand Russia not wanting NATO and nukes on its border (as US promised).
Its easy to understand Russia wanting to be part of Europe.
Russian people are massively behind Putin regarding NATO and Europe
But US drove Russia closer to CCP, Iran, BRICS .
US did more damage to itself and if US started now building ammo it wasted it still wouldn't have replenished it in 5 years - US has no surge capacity for defense manufacturing
Western leaders gave multiple assurances against NATO expansion to Gorbachev in 1990-1991 according to declassified American, Russian, British, Germans documents
nsarchive.gwu.edu
