[VK538FY]

What is an enemy of the west and what is a friend of the west? Take a random western country like France. Do you know how many Franco-Russian 'cercles d'amitié' there are? Go search in Yandex... or Google. Many quite old with a noteworthy history of cultural exchange. No idea if that exists in the anglosphere (not my speciality). Washington, Brussels or the guy in the Élysée palace can't really transcend that.

[darthrupert]

Being a friend of Russia as a country of russians is one thing, and being a friend of the Putin regime is another.

I have nothing against the former, and everything against the latter.