re: Is Henry Kissinger's reason for Russian invasion of Ukraine wrong?

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The irony is that the West, by the offensive realist viewpoint, acted appropriately with a nearly defeated but still belligerent adversary. That viewpoint would suggest to continue expanding while they are weakened in order to ensure they could not possibly mount an effective response when finally confronted.

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Of course it was the correct choice.

The problem came at the end during the early to mid 2000’s when the West had an opportunity to start integrating Russia more into Europe so as to make them a partner rather than a belligerent. There were a couple years there where it looked pretty plausible that Russia and Turkey might join the EU and adopt the Euro. However, stupid politics, a lot of that coming from Putin himself, submarined any chances at that happening. Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 was basically the death of any hopes of Russia becoming a partner in the European system rather than an opponent.