Ana has a view, common to university undergrads, that the world basically operates like a man playing billiards by himself, where the player is the United States and other nations ricochet about in pre-set courses because of what the United States does. It’s very stupid and reductive.
Shock therapy and its legacy is a topic of hot debate across the former eastern bloc. It’s important to know that “shock therapy” was a set of economic and market prescriptions to guide nations towards a more open economy. The corruption, gangsterism, and political dealing that went along with it in Russia and some Soviet states (including Ukraine) was not part of the prescription, was not necessary, and was a choice made by the people who engaged in it. Former Warsaw Pact states like the Czechs and Poles went through the process too, as did the Balts, to dramatically different results and dramatically lower (but not non-existent) levels of banditry.
Russia’s behavior is a choice made by Russians. Poor, persecuted Russia is not forced to march into its much smaller neighbors and take things to defend itself. It does that because for centuries it has been a predatory, expansionist empire and Russians continue to see the world in those terms.