Ask Lemmygrad

Edit: looks like Lemmy put my reply on the wrong post

Russia has very conservative attitudes but they remain without much Nazism at all, particularly because of their Soviet history.

I have no doubt Putin desires some form of increased Russian prestige and power, but from what we can see, Russia doesn't really have the same developed capitalism where there is an impetus to expand and conquer (they have a fairly low GDP and nothing else suggesting colonialism). So we can't apply our American/western notions of power/prestige = dominate other countries.

Nor would suggesting they are trying to expand their territory be correct in the context of the history of this war, since the line Putin drew was "do not join NATO" because that threatens Russian sovereignty. So even if Russia does gain territory and even if that is desired by Putin, then sovereignty and defense are the issues that have precedence because the reality is that the US is trying to use Ukraine as a means to affect regime change in Russia and to open Russia to exploitation by the west.