From Russia’s point of view, they had many reasons to annex Crimea. It wasn’t just a random act of aggression.

Having studied this situation a bit, my conclusion is that both sides are to blame, with Russia being considerably more culpable due to choosing the violent option. Geopolitics isn’t simple and thinking that one side is entirely to blame is just naive and falling for propaganda.

By escalation I’m referring to the giant effort to exclude Russia from everything, including liquor stores and name registrars.