Commentary Contrary to the popular narrative coming from Moscow, neither the United States nor NATO are at fault for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In fact, other than Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, Beijing—not Washington—bears much of the blame for Russia’s invasion. That will become evident in a moment. But first, let’s look at a few reasons that Putin has given for his invasion of Ukraine. Putin’s Realpolitik Rationale One explanation is Putin’s realpolitik view of international relations. Put simply, realpolitik views the world through a balance of power lens, and often in zero-sum terms, wherein one nation’s gain in power is another’s loss. Balance of power analysis typically maintains that the more centers of power there are, the more difficult it becomes to maintain a balance among the nations and, therefore, the more unstable the world becomes. Such a state of “multipolarity,” is inherently less stable than either bipolarity, …