In reply to Barry.

As has been repeatedly pointed out, the Coup in 2014 is one of the key events.

As respected independent military analyst Scott Ritter points out, Merkel also knew that the Kiev regime installed by the CIA-backed coup d’état in 2014 was not interested in a peaceful resolution of the civil war in that country.

The unspoken policy in Berlin was all about buying time for the anticipated aggression against Russia.

As is noted further in the actual Scot Ritter link:

Russia had been duped into believing there was a diplomatic solution to the violence that had broken out in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine in the aftermath of the 2014 U.S.-backed Maidan coup in Kiev.

Once the Coup was run in 2014, after having seen how NATO operated in the former Yugoslavia, and even more importantly, how NATO threw their weight in with Jihadists and overthrew Qadaffy in 2011, the writing was on the wall. Putin knew all about the Benghazi gun running to Syria as well. Finally Putin could observe the 0 Admin actions relating to helping Iran go nuclear. He also almost certainly knew about the mass bribery of Joetato and many others in Ukraine.

He correctly observed that our Deep State, under 0 and Clinton, were even MORE radical than they had been under BJ, and that the GOPe had joined in.

Washington DC under 0bambam had elevated the threat levels to the highest it had ever been.

So he immediately moved to secure the Crimea and the crucial military base there.

Seeing this move, Deep State realized that Ukraine could not fight this proxy war at that time. They had moved too early, but they had to because the duly elected Ukrainian President was moving away from the EU and TO Russia. So they had to run the Coup and hope Putin did nothing. Putin called that bluff.

So they began negotiations and Putin and Russia was again reassured on the Donbas and other issues.

AS the article points out, the intention all along was to renege on that Treaty as soon as possible once they felt Ukraine was strong enough to take Russia on again.

They then reneged on it and started killing ethnic Russians in the Donbas anyway.

But along comes Trump, and Putin thinks, “OK finally we have a normal leader there, and he isn’t afraid to play hardball. So I have to back off, knowing they won’t do anything radical now under Trump”.

What would you think he said when Trump was taken out in a Coup by the very same Radical Group that was behind 0bambam and Crooked Clinton?

Error happened.