Yes, this is unquestionably one of the factors (major ones) fueling Western hatred towards Putin. And Lukashenko. And Imran Khan. And Nicolas Maduro. And Jacobo Árbenz. And Khomeini. And... The list is huge, you get my point.
Are you chapin? Arbenz really stands out on that list of people still living.
They are of a different kind, they do have one thing in common - they stood/stand in the way of unobstructed Western imperialism.
I think that was a joke. But a lot of liberals genuinely believe this.
I really don't understand what NATO's understanding of the situation and goals have been in the post-USSR.
Putin tried to reconcile with the Atlantic bloc but they categorically rejected any possibility of that. I can't say how much of an opportunist Putin would have been but we never got to find out. If he were extremely opportunistic the Russia-China partnership of today would be much less solid today. Instead there has been this extremely strong to antagonise Russia. I can only guess but they probably want Russia have a pro-US government, deindustrialise them and balkanise them further. But any chances of that seem all but gone now. Their war failed. Their sanctions failed. Putin remain popular. Ties with China and the global south as a whole remain strong. Where do they go from here? On the current path the only possible outcome is further escalation, possibly provoking a nuclear war at some point. Is the US reich even capable of reigning in their belligerence at any point?
In a manner of speaking, yes.
Yeltsin was more than happy to let American capitalists buy out Soviet industry and resources at fire sale prices. He was, as you can see by the GDP numbers as well as other metrics like excess deaths and life expectancy, absolutely horrible for the Russian people, but Washington never cares about the people so he's still upheld as a positive figure in the west. Putin was picked, with input from powerful people in the US, as a successor to Yeltsin, but then took a more resource nationalist and import substitution track which means Wall Street can't get rich off Russian production. (Ironically this is how western empires were built.) He tried for about eight years to get into the US' good graces but finally realized in 2008 that Russia will never be an equal partner in anything the US empire does.
Haha, yes from a distance the flags can look a bit similar, i can understand your confusion.
