Not an expert, but I think the real motivation is intolerance of anything looking like a democracy adjacent to Russia. If Ukraine can develop a functioning eco

Not an expert, but I think the real motivation is intolerance of anything looking like a democracy adjacent to Russia. If Ukraine can develop a functioning economy in communication with the West, and a functioning government more or less accountable to the electorate, that is a huge embarrassment for Putin's regime. The Russian economy is basically oil and gas extraction, the Russian polity is basically "support Putin or go to jail". If Ukraine were to begin to prosper in other activities, and well they might given decent governance, the Russian model would be exposed as an authoritarian sham. Additionally, Putin gains politically by Great Power rhetoric. We are simply protecting our interests, everyone is against us, we must be strong and united! It's nonsense, no one in the West gives a damn what happens within Russian borders so long as they don't bother anyone else, but it unites the country behind Putin. The Putin regime is a nasty mix of oligarchy, corruption, propaganda, media control and intelligence and police services. It's sadly enabled by modern information technology, which can be used for ill as well as good. The Chinese Communist Party is a similar contraption. The question is, how long can regimes like this perpetuate themselves? It would be great if these ugly contrivance were contained within their own borders, but current events show us they are everyone's problem. It isn't for us to tell the Russians, or the Chinese, how to govern themselves. But we shouldn't be enabling these regimes by our trade or technology. The hope that trade and communication would make them more democratic and accountable and law-abiding has been tried, and failed. If anything, those connections are making us less democratic, as we see Chinese censorship filtering into American entertainment and marketing. It's time to decouple from these countries. Economically that's very painful, but over the long term it is much less painful than feeding these cancers.