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Well did you listen to him or did you just use the incongruity to dismiss what he said out of hand and substitute what you think he ought to say? Because in that exact interview Putin quite specifically mentions at length Russia's relationship to NATO vis à vis Ukraine. Never mind in his numerous speeches prior.
It's not the whole of the justification, because he is clearly using the persecution of Russians to motivate his intervention in part, but reducing "we have ties to this land and these people and a historical context to our claims" to muh medieval LARP is flippant nonsense that I'm not at all surprised to see Hanania peddling.
I don't think geopolitics should be mixed with internet bloodsports, personally.
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