Quote:
Originally Posted by castlebravo92
The problem is, Russia was/is a mafia state. The realistic post-USSR choices for Russia were either an extremely corrupt democracy or a return to autocracy of some form. From a Russian perspective, the US and the West used and abused Russia even when Russia acted in good faith (like after Sep 11). Then again, the US isn't forcing countries to join NATO. That kind of thing happens when you invade your neighbors and murder and rape their civilians.
The ironic thing is, the US and Russia share many of the same geopolitical threats (China, radical Islam), and Russia is under much more of a direct threat from both.
|
Point taken. Not sure how we can get them to the peace table, but I think really when we had Yeltsin in power, we did lose some opportunity to work with them somehow. Maybe if we did somehow we could have avoided Putin, I do not know. There are some differences between the West and Russia, but I think overall we share a lot of the same values and have similar enemies and potential enemies.