Broadly speaking, Central and Western European countries have largely dismissed Eastern European concerns and wariness towards Russia for literal decades. All the “leading European countries” were pushing for increased engagement with Russia despite their territorial adventurism in Georgia. Hell, increased trade with Russia was practically Merkel’s signature policy (which, it has to be said, has aged like milk).
Eastern Europe has been encouraging caution and skepticism towards Russia’s geopolitical motivations basically since they joined NATO. The rest of the alliance ignored those warnings, and it’s demonstrably biting us in the ass now. Yes, there are many factors at play, but this is absolutely one of the factors, and it’s a big one.