Russia always draws its red lines in other people's territories. How would that work - their former satellites become independent countries, but cannot freely choose their alliances? This must be a very Russian form of independence. They still call their form of government a democracy btw. Ukraine, OTOH, is a "Nazi-regime".

BTW, why did Russia invade Finnland, Chechnya or Georgia? I believe, they did not want to join NATO.

There is a famous Gorbachev interview which clarified the issue once and for all: At the 2+4 roundtable, they did not even talk about the NATO eastward expansion. That said, Gorbatchev believed it was a mistake by NATO to expand eastward. (You might also want to ask the Poles, the Swedes, the Finns etc.)

As far as the original subject of this thread is concerned:
On this very board, 11 months ago, we had a long discussion: Was the writing on the wall - or not?
EarlyRetiree replies on Investing with an eye on rising authoritarianism

I was surprised to read that many were simply happy with a "likely repeat" of the first Trump market boom. That mood has apparently changed.

After the election I moved 87% of my funds out of the U.S., mostly into UK, EU and JP mid caps. The UK and Japan, being monarchies, should be relatively protected from the current "democracy crisis". And they can print their own currencies. The EU is probably the most undervalued asset in the world right now. Even by its own citizens. Everybody seems to believe it is certain to become somebody's lunch. I don't think so. Maybe I am naive, but I deeply trust in culture. Europe has very deep cultural roots and won't be able to become anybody's prostitute, even if some European politicians are almost paying in order to sell themselves.

Having lived in Italy for many years, I have some firsthand experience why Mussolini apparently said that governing the Italian people is not difficult, but useless. In today's world, I take that as a positive quality.