I've worked and traveled in Russia and Ukraine and it's certainly true that there's a complex inter-relationship between the two countries. It's also true that, as always, populists fashion crude polarities in order to sway the great mass of ignorant simple-minded people one way or the other. But going back in history does nothing to address modern concerns, so explication is less important than finding a way to resolve current issues. It's nice to imagine a truth & reconciliation option for modern Russia but that will have to wait, perhaps for a very long time, until the conditions make it possible. No fascist dictator like Putin is going to tolerate even the illusion of such an institution, never mind anything approaching reality.

Today, Ukraine is attempting to remain an independent nation and Russia is attempting to subjugate it by force of arms. If Turkey attempted to crush Greece, or Germany attempted to crush Austria, we'd see what we see in Ukraine today: a violent injustice that must be stopped by all means necessary. It's a great shame that in the West we have persistently sat on our hands and made windy speeches but done far too little, and always far too late.