I'd take away "by and large" here.

Many of them are also exceedingly generous, open and friendly and cares deeply. This holds true for both sides of the political spectrum.

They've also suffered a lot to end two world wars that they didn't start.

This is even more true of the Russians, and as an outsider, I'm wondering how much of their politics is informed by those memories.

It never ceases to amuse me how ignorant I am in my comments despite my attempts at being smart, wise and fair.

Of course you are right.

That said, this invasion is still a crime and I am utterly fed up by Russian actions in neighboring states, their constant lying, especially after MH17 was shot down, getting more or less away with state sponsored cheating in sports, simulating bombing raids against Swedish power plants etc. We should have seen this coming a long time ago.

(In my defense however, note that from the very start of this, even before the protests in Russia were known to me I think I have not said a bad word about the Russian people, barely a bad word about the men in boots and only after they started aggression and mostly - I hope - just about the leadership.)

> This is even more true of the Russians

No, it is not. The First World War was started because Russia backed up Serbia's refusal of Austria's ultimatum after a Serbian operation assassinated Austria's crown prince (and France & the UK backed up Russia, while Germany backed up Austria, and the whole powder keg blew up). The Second World War started because of the German invasion of Poland — and who else invaded Poland sixteen days later? The Soviet Union, which had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with its supplementary German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. Moreover, modern-day Poland is really an amalgamation of western Poland and what used to be eastern Germany: the Soviet Union kept about one third of what had been Poland.

They where allied with the Nazis in the second one and invaded 16 days after the start.