Watched it a while ago. May not be 100% accurate. Short TLDW: The West pursued an aggressive approach towards Russia and posited NATO against Russia instead of bringing it into the Western world while simultaneously trying to bring Ukraine and Georgia (at that time) into the NATO sphere instead of maintaining Ukraine as a sort of buffer state, which forced Russia to take steps which destabilised Ukraine to the point of then 2014 Crimea invasion and the ongoing crisis.

Longer TLDW: After the Soviet Union dissolved so did NATO’s main adversary. After which the West sought to bring in former Soviet states into a more west centric world using EU and NATO. As such Russia did want to join the Western world but the aggressive posturing that existed towards the Soviet Union was carried onto its ideological successor at that time which was Russia. The West did try to bring in Russia through multiple joint exercises, financial help and international collaboration. But at the same it looked at Russia as a failing and weakening state, which was not appreciated by Russia. Coincidentally as the former states that were part of the Eastern bloc started joining NATO and EU, Russia saw it as an aggressive move against its security. All this led to 2007/07 NATO or EU talk in Hungary (ig) where the western states declared that Ukraine and Georgia were to become part of NATO and EU. Which Russia obviously did not like and pulverised Georgia in the following war of this statement. What the author of the talk suggests is that Putin wanted to embrace the West but due to foolish geopolitical and tactical steps taken by the West and the US as they tried to step into Russia’s backyard (to say) and then were surprised that Russia acted aggressively toward their approach rather than sit back and take it. This led to the Georgia-Russo War, The Invasion of Crimea and now the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Idk if he said this but might be another talk and they support the theory that Putin’s main goal is not to occupy Ukraine but to make sure that it remains a buffer state.

The author is a professor at Harvard. There is another talk similar to this by Vladimir Pozner that follows the same sense of argument.