Heisenberg wrote:In other words, the assumption was that Russia could never be anything other than an enemy country.
There would be no reason to fear Russia "walking through Eastern Europe" if a serious effort was made to have friendly relations. America and its allies instead decided to try and give Russia the Versailles treatment, which is a major cause of today's problems.
"Let us begin with this evident fact: "Russia" (Muscovy) does not belong at all to Europe, but to Asia. It follows that judging "Russia" (Muscovy) and the "Russians" (Muscovites) by our European standards is a mistake to be avoided."—gonzague de reynold, 19501
In methodological terms, one should de-Europeanise any analysis of "Russian" (Muscovy ) policy.— thomas gomart, 20062
I am reading this book right now, and I want to share with your board members parlors from this book, in order to better understand the character of the second cold war and end the endless discussions around very nature of Moscow empire . the major problem with analysis of Moscow aggression against us" de-Europeanise any analysis of Muscovite policy" , " Muscovy doesn´t belong at all to Europe, but to Asia. It follows that judging Moscow and the Muscovites by our European standards is a mistake to be avoided."
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/up ... 48_ch1.pdfnoemon wrote:Russia is and has been very welcome to be friends with everyone in Europe and the west, and even now despite invading several countries and destroying any form of opposition in the country, Europe and the west more generally are still being friendly to Russia by failing to do anything meaningful.
The idea that Russia is somehow justified to invade the Ukraine and create a new partition issue in Europe so that it hold the Ukrainians by the neck for the next several decades and beyond is total nonsense.
The west and Europe are guilty for tacitly supporting Putin not for provoking him as you are claiming.
'Resets' to Muscovy does not work. On the contrary, a more muscular approach to the country will yield results."
" Moscow is not interested in maintaining the strategic status quo, especially around its borders. Rather, Moscow wants to ‘regain’, not ‘maintain’, influence in the shared neighbourhood with the EU. If the West wants resets, the Russian thinking goes, it is up to the West to retrench. ... Russia has found its own ways to circumvent the barricade of EU and US foreign policy positions: stick it out until a new offer to start again comes along. To a degree, each new reset offer only fuels Russian reluctance to truly engage: why make mutual concessions if chances are in a few years’ time new leaders in key Western countries will offer a new reset? This rewind-and-repeat approach only suggests to Russia that the West is softening. "
https://ecfr.eu/article/why-attempts-to ... ways-fail/