I mean, Putin's an expansionistic genocidal gangster all on his own, but it's incontrovertible that Bush Jr. reneged on a very important anti-ballistic missile treaty with Russia and tried to position anti-missile systems in former Warsaw countries like Poland, thereby greatly aggravating the nuclear detente.

It doesn't take all that much empathy to see it from a Russian POV - your main geopolitical rival abandons a treaty with you, and begins placing military assets near your borders? Sure, it's definitely threatening, especially if you don't trust them.

It's nothing to do with their war in Ukraine, but is nevertheless real.