300-year-old czarist empire. in return for which, what did they get? they have nato expansion into poland. the czech republic into hungary, there is a narrative that says we kept giving in. you kept pushing us. part of this is the russians have always been somewhat distrustful of the west. there is another argument, we gave them a lot of aid after the end of the cold war. but my only point is a lot of russians believe that propaganda. so it is amping up the volume. but there is a real alternative narrative that russians believe and putin is gaining ground because of it. i think it is true putin is very popular. tomorrow he will have his annual chat with the russian people. and you will probably hear him talk about the relations with the united states and the eu and what is going on. we saw it in the balkans, the