The people who would be interested in the question I pose will read this post, because your question is of equal interest. Thus they will see the question here.

I agree this is an act of desperation. That's part of why I lean against the "Russia as aggressor" camp. To my eye, the Russians are not thinking in terms of gain; they're thinking in terms of survival. They know that taking Ukraine has destroyed huge amounts of potential business and development; they're not stupid. They have sunk billions of dollars into the Nordstream projects. They know those investments are severely threatened by their current actions. If they were in "expansion" mode, they would be protecting the vehicles of that expansion. The fact that instead of protecting those assets, they are putting this investment at risk tells me they see the existential threats to them as sufficiently dangerous that they cannot afford to worry about "getting more". They are now acting to try to defend what they have. As they say in football, "the best defense is a good offense." I see the Russians taking that dictum to its logical conclusion.