As I wrote, nobody's innocent and the US runs a planetary empire and network of alliances. But none of the above isn't on the menu. If you see no difference between Putin and Ursula von der Leyen, the Orwellian Chinese social credit system and its US-allied South Korean and Japanese neighbors, you're living in a fantasy world. In Latvia we know the difference all too well. Having the more distant empire as protector and American troops based here preserves Baltic independence. You could never convince any Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian or Pole they're oppressed by an American empire. In a choice between NATO and the Wagner Group and Kadyrov's tik-tok combat, the least bad one is absolutely clear.