When it dismembered Poland before WWII, when it claimed land as reparations from Germany after WWIi, when it finlandized Finland prior to WWII, when it pushed Poland westward and ethnically cleansed Poles from their traditional lands (if only because Poland, long part of the Russian empire, dared to resist Lenin and Budyonnyi, the ingrates).
It seized the Baltics before WWII and only relinquished them briefly to Hitler, and well nigh went to war with them when they left the USSR.
It has all but annexed Abkhazia and S. Ossetia, taken in two separate operations a decade apart.
It has no problems subjugating surrounding territories--gas and economic blockade of the Baltics, occupation of Georgia, gas stoppages to Ukraine.
It issued Russian passports to many Crimeans during the last tension over the Crimea a decade ago, and has resumed the practice. Putin claims the inherent right to defend (1) ethnic Russians, (2) Russian speakers, (3) Russian citizens, (4) Russian interests--pick a couple for any context.
Now territorial soveignty is the most important criterion. Now territorial integrity. Now Russian interests. It varies. But it's always the one eternal criterion. Go figure.
And everybody's too afraid to do anything about the inconsistency. Big words spoken over Ukraine last time. They echoed once or twice before the energy dissipated into heat. Georgia? Ethnic cleansing of Abkhazia?
Abkhazia made the last 20 years of the IP conflict look tame in the amount of population shifts, resettling, confiscation of land, death toll. But we don't care because Russia's big and we're afraid we might get hurt. Israel's safe. This is what's been said about Gandhi--had he faced Hitler, he'd have been quickly killed and remained a nobody, but because he picked a milquetoast foe he was a giant. We think ourselves giants because we pick small, safe foes, and find excuses to avoid taking on a big foe that might hurt.
That's the universally accepted foreign policy. Russia will do pretty much what it wants to, to the extent that it feels like ignoring the West unless it thinks that there will be actual consequences. We dither and show there will be no consequences; to that extent we embolden Putin and reveal what the actual internationally accepted policy on the ground is.
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