Russia could have been been welcomed into the fold of the 'the global north'. That is what should have happened 20 years ago. Instead, Russia has received 20 years of NATO creeping toward it, and 20 years of still being used as a go-to bogeyman for anything and everything.
The 20 years of NATO creeping towards it are nothing compared to the absolute shitfest western glowies did there in the 90s. First they got Yeltsin elected despite him being a fringe candidate with no chance through blatant manipulation - they broke the campaign finance limit by a factor of 1000 - and then once the drunk puppet was in power, he gave them free reign to steal everything they could get their hands on. Russia saw the biggest wave of deaths unseen since WW2 - from substance abuse, suicides, and utterly collapsed healthcare and other public services. People over 35 or so still remember what the 90s were like, and they know who put a stop to it.
If I were Russian, I'd vote for Putin, too.
Russia could have been been welcomed into the fold of the 'the global north'. That is what should have happened 20 years ago. Instead, Russia has received 20 years of NATO creeping toward it, and 20 years of still being used as a go-to bogeyman for anything and everything.
The 20 years of NATO creeping towards it are nothing compared to the absolute shitfest western glowies did there in the 90s. First they got Yeltsin elected despite him being a fringe candidate with no chance through blatant manipulation - they broke the campaign finance limit by a factor of 1000 - and then once the drunk puppet was in power, he gave them free reign to steal everything they could get their hands on. Russia saw the biggest wave of deaths unseen since WW2 - from substance abuse, suicides, and utterly collapsed healthcare and other public services. People over 35 or so still remember what the 90s were like, and they know who put a stop to it.