Yeah, in the nineties there was a lot of optimism and in fact, some decent cooperation.
However, a major flaw is that Russia suffered a lot and people didn’t see that prosperity everyone just assumed would follow.
So while in the West, we were partying down about our prospective new buddies, the situation was actually pretty bad in Russia, and Putin found a receiptive audience in that context.
Well, in early nineties it had good relations. Then it stopped having good relation with Russia and started having good relation with oligarchs and later Putin’s mafia.
The implication here is that the west has a good relationship with Russia at some point, and that has never been true.
There were a few years of hope of a genuine partnership after the wall fell. That hope remained but arguably became delusional once Putin took charge.
Incorrect. “Good thing” =/= good relationship
My point is that Russia has never been interested in just oppressing their own people, so this meme has never been true.
Yeah, in the nineties there was a lot of optimism and in fact, some decent cooperation.
However, a major flaw is that Russia suffered a lot and people didn’t see that prosperity everyone just assumed would follow.
So while in the West, we were partying down about our prospective new buddies, the situation was actually pretty bad in Russia, and Putin found a receiptive audience in that context.
Well, in early nineties it had good relations. Then it stopped having good relation with Russia and started having good relation with oligarchs and later Putin’s mafia.