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They handed russia an excuse on a silver platter. If russia invades, the u.s. thinks, the u.s. can say to russia's neighbors "see, russia is coming for you too", except no one is gonna buy that bullshit in eastern europe at this time.
If russia doesn't invade, the u.s. will try to say "russia invading ukraine must not have been about getting us off their border after all!"

Except russia now has a very important fallback claim: Of course they didn't invade estonia, because it was never about u.s troops or missiles on their border, it was about protecting russians in the donbass. Checkmate pentagon planners.

It's a bit of a give and take set of choices, on both sides, and the fact the u.s. is resorting to this B-list strategy says to me the u.s. hand is weakening in ukraine. We're up against the wall of going all-in in ukraine, or calling for peace.
Confirms to me that the recent escalations wrt the u.s. bombing nuclear bombers and hitting other targets in russia really were saber rattling, as I predicted prior. So the prior predicted state of bluffing, was a doubling down. Playbook thinking "they always double down" strikes again.

It also confirms the u.s. is still underestimating russia, and is projecting its own bluffing behavior onto russia. It is always a dangerous mistake to underestimate your opponent.

Incidentally there is no way the russians don't see this. And if putin chooses to back down now, it will be proof enough that he is more controlled opposition, and that this war was always a tacit agreement to pay off weapons companies while making bank and consolidating power in both the u.s. and russia under their respective governments.

This is for all the chips, the only honest move is to go for the throat. If the game is globalist vs independents, than putin's next moves determine what he was about all along. The russian's, unlike the americans, will depose him if he fails the test.

The u.s. is still in the hyper-business-as-normal sentiment and so it doesn't think these arrangements could realistically go any further than they have, as long as they don't push too hard. Estonia looks like backing off.

Theres always the possibility it is also a noose for russia's credibility, but we saw the rumors before
"u.s. troops on russia's border will be bombed by the u.s. in order to blame russia!"
But I don't think the u.s. wants the full blown war. This is still just about getting nato to do the fighting while poking the bear in the eye.

If it is true NATO is the UN's nascent army, and the u.s. is taking its marching orders from china, then that puts china and the UN at odds.