I saw a documentary about American psychologists analyzing the future for Adolph Hitler--and how the European War would end. They were right on the money in 1943.
I somehow believed that psychologists have been involved in geopolitics since then. Your articles suggests not.
Mentally ill people are often in a state of unreality, so they find all sorts of excuses for their poor decisions and actions. I think the Russian people are in a similar state. They no longer dominate other people like they used to. They want that feeling of power back.
NATO expansion was only a convenient smokescreen.