Fact check: Former Nato chief did not say EU expansion ‘provoked’ Putin 

Excuse me? Yes he did! I have seen the interview in which he said it. I think someone is clearly confusing people up. Stoltenburg or whatever his name is said it. And I kind of agree, NATO maybe “defensive” but it still allows for nations to apply for membership, even those that are next to nations that demand they don’t accept their membership due to rational fears that they can be used to house weapons. This narrative that nato is defensive is clearly being used so they can threaten Russia without actually stating it.

This is an excellent book and leaves you in no doubt who is to blame. 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. https://amzn.eu/d/09nk3HZs

So who exactly is responsible for Sweden and Finland joining NATO ?

Farage was all about "sovereignty" when it came to brexit yet he clearly doesn't understand membership of NATO is exactly what sovereign nations apply for. In other words, membership of NATO is entirely consensual which sovereign countries decide for themselves and member states have to meet all conditions before they can join. Whether countries are members or not is not the business of Vlad Pukinguts. Yet he created a land dispute with Georgia and Ukraine (by invading and occupying Crimea) in order to prevent those two sovereign nations from being able to join NATO because settling land disputes with neighbouring countries is one of the conditions for membership. To stand on Mad Vlad's side saying he was "provoked" by "NATO expansion" is the rapist's defense (I assaulted her because she provoked me wearing that short dress). Vlad is a rapist. Nothing more. His entire MO is not to bring back the Soviet Union. He wants to bring back the old Russian empire. It's the existence of NATO that's stopping him. Moldova would have been the next non-NATO country he would have gone for had he been successful with Ukraine. Clearly we see a need for NATO. His illegal invasion of Ukraine comicly expanded NATO by scaring Sweden and Finland to join. The only thing expanding for the wrong reasons is Russia's border westwards.

The Berlin Wall fell because Gorbachev had agreement with the west that NATO and the EU would not expand into the old soviet countries if he agreed to the reunification of Germany following the fall of the wall. The west did not honour the agreement and did expand right up to the Russian border. The provocation and threat to Russian sovereignty is obvious. Little wonder Putin reacted, took him long enough.

You can't invade a country, whatever the circumstance. That doesn't change the fact that George Bush Sr's right-hand man, James Baker, explicitly told Gorbachev this: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early#:~:text=Washington%20D.C.%2C%20December%2012%2C%202017,leaders%20to%20Gorbachev%20and%20other

The EU should offer Russia a route to membership.