So much this. And thanks for teaching me the term "Westsplaining."
American leftists/contrarians have the same disease that the "blame Biden for inflation and gas prices" have -- America controls everything in the world, so whatever happens, America did it. It's so fucking egocentric and shortsighted, and they don't realize that they are the intellectual equivalent of the guys who put the Biden "I did this" stickers on gas pumps.
Russia has agency. It has had agency for 1000 years. The countries all along its flanks have agency -- eastern europe, western europe, scandinavia, central asia, east asia -- They are all real-deal players with significant influence on Russia and Russian thinking, again, for 1000 years. This idea that Russia's actions are little more than an involuntary reptilian reflex against stimuli arising from the US exclusively/primarily is self-absorbed thinking of the highest order.
Russia is busy, right now, being Russia. That is, being the Russia that it has been for centuries, LONG before the US had a significant role in world affairs. Watching an entity with a long history, distinct personality, and plenty of agency, doing what that entity has done repeatedly in the past, and this time, blaming this episode of that consistent pattern of behavior on a relatively novel stimulus is folly from whichever angle you examine it. Yet that's just what the "no matter what happens on the globe, the US is to blame" crowd does.
That doesn't mean that the US doesn't have agency, power, and influence. But it's a far greater and more complex system than "whatever the US does controls everything." We overestimate our importance and power -- most of these critics will say that, or at least nod along when someone else does Yet in the next breath, no matter what the shitstorm in the world is, they will examine that shitstorm solely through the lens of "and the US caused this." Cognitive dissonance -- it's not just for Trumpers.