Putin vs the West

Want to know more about the west's deteriorating relationships with Russia over the last decade? You could do worse than watching this documentary, which is rich with interviews with the major players on all sides. Of course, it's talking heads television, but the subject matter justifies the approach: these are the people who actually made the key decisions, and whilw of course they're all spinning, it's actually informative to see how each of them would like to be judged. At the end of the day, bad things happen when a still-powerful party cannot come to terms with their own diminishing importance; western governments have many failings, but the most obvious direct challenge they pose to Russia is one of status. The series ends with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a challenge to which we still have no certain response.