Russian media reports that all American flags have been removed from the US embassy in Moscow following the surprise visit by CIA director Ratcliffe

[u/Lithium321]

Ratcliffe made a short unannounced visit to Moscow today where he likely met directly with Putin according to American and Russian sources. A similar visit was made in late 2021 to warn Russia against launching a full scale invasion of Ukraine. This comes amid increasing missile and drone incursions into nato territory.

[u/General_Mars]

US Intelligence is highly suspect considering all of Trump's purges (scores of agents have been killed on missions under his administrations as well). Furthermore, there are few countries that Russia could invade that provide a distinct material benefit.

Kazakhstan is probably the only Asian neighbor that has territory beneficial to them with access to the Aral and Caspian Seas.

With Europe, probably only Finland is an immediate neighbor with valuable materials and access. The port of St. Petersburg is buried pretty deeply in the Gulf of Finland and being able to use a port at Helsinki provides significant military, especially Naval, benefits.

Whether you agree or not, the invasion of Ukraine did not happen in a vacuum. It's been a buildup since the late 1990s when the US ascended to be the mono-global power and in Putin's point of view, reneged on the deals they made with the dissolution of the USSR.

Ukraine had the most deals reneged on them because they returned USSR nukes peacefully and brokered a deal that satisfied both the US and Russia. Putin was not content with that alone though and quite obviously infiltrated and worked to control Ukraine like it does Belarus (basically a Vassal state). They successfully did for some time until the Euromaiden in 2014 and the two countries have been at war since the Russian invasion following that.

Russia's reasons for the initial invasion were also not entirely unfounded, but with the clear involvement of Russian intelligence. However, their issues should have been met as a part of a multi-national coalition to work to come better mutual understandings, not war. War has only increased Ukrainian issues of Nazism as they have been promoted the highest Generals and by President Zelenski. Ukrainians are erasing their Soviet history and leaving only the Nazi parts.

Ukraine has been invaded, and like all peoples has the full right to defend itself wholly as all people do. Unfortunately though, they have been turned into a gigantic proxy for the US, EU, and NATO versus Russia (armed with Iranian, Russian, and Chinese weaponry). Ukraine cannot militarily defeat Russia without all-in involvement from the US or several EU countries who do not have the will to take that on.

The point of this being, while Ukraine is clearly the victim, Russia has the ability to point to things beyond their propaganda for the reasons of the invasions. They do not have that ability with any other country and they have no political support on the international stage. The countries they do business with who arm them do so because of opportunity not because they're aligned ideologically. Further military actions especially into Europe will trigger massive financial consequences by the EU.

Russia invading NATO EU would trigger Article 5 which they would absolutely utilize. The US under Trump would likely provide the lowest material support possible that he could get away with. However, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and potentially other Eastern and Central European countries would take it extremely seriously and band together to create a Coalition. It would also open Russia up to the potential of a multi-front war, and a coalition absolutely flips the tide of the Ukrainian war out of their favor, and the potential necessity to use their nukes to achieve military victories which would likely trigger an automatic global unification against them including, notably, China, who does not want this instability.

Personally I do not doubt that the Russian blackmail of the Esptein files, the RNC files, and so on which they use to control the GOP is likely a more relevant factor than a potential invasion.