[selfhoster11]

This is an intensely US-centric perspective.

If the West includes new joiners from behind the Iron Curtain, then let me tell you that any "demonisation" of Russia is deserved.

I'm too young to have experienced the communist times, but based on what I heard from my parents and from history, being a forcible subject to Russia sucks. And this is exactly what Russia is trying to achieve in Ukraine (if not just outright destruction instead).

I was willing to give Russia a loan of trust and see how its post-USSR identity evolved. Unfortunately, it seems like that hope wasn't met with reality.