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by altec3
2453 days ago
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This narrative? The Russians hacked the US election. They shot down a Dutch airline. They invaded and took Crimea. They poisoned a former spy in the UK. And that's just what I can list off the top of my head. I'm not a neoconservative, and don't care for them, but it seems like for Russia, the Cold War never ended and the West has been sitting around saying 'We Won' for the last 30 years. |
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In 2008, things weren't so bad- the US had fairly good cooperation with Russia in Central Asia, Bush and Putin had a good working relationship.
Then, for various reasons good and bad, the Obama/Clinton administration did a lot of things to upset Russia, threatening thier external safety (on-going NATO expansion for example), internal stability (democracy promotion), and national pride (for some reason, Obama and Hillary just never got along with Putin. Also various economic woes necessitated action here to stabilize the regime.). As a result Russia began lashing out in various ways. And, as it lashed out, it found success largely without consequence. For crying loud, it invaded and seized land for which the US and the UK (and Russia) had given formal security assurances for in exchange for the Ukraine giving up nuclear weapons, and nothing happened. The Russian state likes its prominent role in world affairs, and thinks that it is key to internal stability.
It's not really possible to put the genie back in the bottle now, but the relationship of the west and Russia didn't have to be this way, and it wasn't 11 years ago.