I cited to that op-ed in the first sentence of the subsection, "Blaming NATO and/or the United States." I recognized in that section that the US and NATO are not without fault, but any effort to expand in no way comes close to justifying what Putin is doing today.

Anyone arguing that NATO expansion was antagonizing needs to also remember that Putin was not necessarily opposed to NATO expansion in the 2000s. Russia even considered joining.

Putin's arguments about NATO are simply a diversion to his overarching mission - realizing Soviet Union 2.0.