This situation was not unforseen.

Even under Gorbachev it was agreed that NATO would not expand into the east.

The west gave Russia a kicking after the fall of the Soviet Union, leading to the rise of Putin.

NATO has always been a military alliance, it has no civilian or diplomatic functions. It is the wrong tool for the job of managing the post-Soviet fallout.

Now it looks like war is inevitable, but in general its a good idea to avoid war if possible, am I wrong?

So we arrive at this place as a result of the actions of an incompetent and delusional Washington foreign policy elite, the blob, which also gave us Iraq and Afghanistan.

'Populism' is merely an incoherent reaction to these maniacal 'expert' elites which went on the rampage after being released from the straight jacket of the cold war.

We are in a pre WW1 type situation with multipolarity and alliances, ready to kick off WW3 from a seemingly inconsequential trigger event.