It’s not contradictory but thanks for repeating my sentence with different wording.
Sovereign countries can choose their alliances freely. Of course it’s Russian paranoia to be fearful of the NATO expansion. NATO would not start WW3 by invading Russia. And NATO expansion is the direct consequence of Russian imperialism. Russia’s neighbors are afraid of Russia which has proven time and time again that it can and will use military force to subjugate it’s neighbors. We’ve seen it under the reign of the Tsar. We’ve seen it during soviet times and we’ve seen it in modern Russia with Chechenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine… You have to be willingly blind to overlook all these cases of military aggression out of paranoia and megalomania. Do you think the largest country on earth was created by peaceful negotiations and hugs? It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Your “ample evidence” is fabricated by the spin doctors in Moscow. Congratulations for drinking up that propaganda so willingly.
That might be the case in the US where capitalists have much more influence over election outcomes and politicians themselves are often part of dynasties that accumulated enormous wealth. This is however not comparable to many European countries. Sure, you have capitalists in all capitalist societies. But their direct influence on election results is much smaller and politicians are very often ordinary people and not obscenely rich or privileged by their ancestry.
A whole different aspect is that these ordinary people, once they came into power, lend their ears way too much to capitalist interests and the likes of lobbyists, often ignoring the problems and needs of ordinary people and focussing instead on catering to the industry.
The people could however not vote for these politicians if they realized that their policies thwart their own interests. If they fail to do so, it’s their own fault that the conditions for the majority are not improving. How can you fix the stupidity?