Rasika, you took the right approach trying to educate yourself about Ukraine when the war erupted. You looked at a reputable place like the University of Chicago, where Professor Mearsheimer teaches.

You were intrigued by his reasoning, but after reporting his point of view, you realized that it might not be convincing, so you referred your readers to a 74 minutes-long lecture.

John Joseph Mearsheimer is one of those eloquent American political scientists overly focused on current affairs and ignoring history. For American thinkers like Professor Mearsheimer, it is unimaginable that events that happened more than 1,000 years ago could be the driving motive in politics today. Vide, the case of Vladimir the Great, so admired by Putin.

You could get a better understanding by checking your colleagues' writing on Medium. I can point you to my seven articles about Ukraine posted this year. I wrote the first of them in 2014, "Ukraine — the world is watching." The last one I posted just a few days ago. The most relevant is my explanation: "Why do most Westerners misunderstand Russia?" Have fun learning.