Those post Soviet states you mention all conveniently land on the NATO alliance, so while France Italy nor Germany might not have to worry about a direct invasion from Russia, they would be drawn to collectively defend those post soviet states in NATO. Which obviously would lead to a wider war between Europe and Russia. And if that's on the table, you can bet Putin would be foaming at the mouth to occupy Europe, Next to impossible sure, But trying to gauge the sanity levels of someone who has so blatantly shown that they do not care for the wellbeing of anyone but himself, is not really a good idea. He's a loose cannon, and he knows that image helps him abroad. Not so much domestically, but it definitely allows people to cozy up to the idea that Putin isn't batshit insane.
He’s not a loose cannon. He very calculatedly played Bush over Georgia, used the Chechens against the Chechens.
Rolled into Crimean when the west had a weak leader “who owed him one”. Waited till another weak leader was in place in the west to invade Ukraine completely.
And there he miscalculated, almost.
Remember how all the major nato leaders jumped on the bandwagon inviting Zelinski to flee Ukraine and seek safety in the west.
Most of NATO’s leaders never planned on having to help Ukraine militarily in an extended conflict. They expected Ukrainian to fall while they sent surplus weapons and spoke platitudes.
This is why NaTO’s response to the invasion of Ukraine has been reactionary at best from the very beginning. With never once having a coherent plan of driving Russia from Ukraine.
So while we might think Putin is crazy he’s not. He is at this point in his life and status of his nation what I would call, not risk averse. But that does not make him crazy.
Want to see Putin try and roll up more Eastern European nations. Go back to pre 2016 nato nation defense budgets.
Go back to the Obama Clinton Reset roulette button. Go back to Obama rolling back missile defense in Europe in 2009. All while Putin was developing and testing IRBM and ground launched cruise missiles.
So if your going to complain about nato missteps or failures at least look to the real culprits.
(Note PGriffin, parting comment not directed at you)