Russia is testing if NATO is indeed an anti-Russia alliance. It may well be, although Russians culturally distinguish themselves from the West and would never align with the latter. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, the man responsible for the collapse of communism, still expressed concerns about NATO expansion. Russia even set up CSTO, as something of a counter to NATO, with several former Soviet republics. So, this clearly shows Russia wants to be independent from the West and carve their own influence; that ideology being called Eurasianist.
Keep in mind though that the West and Putin were friendly in the 00s but the former keep questioning the human rights issue in Russia. So, I think this annoyed Putin (as many dictators tend to be when questioned about human rights) and only galvanised his and Russia’s anti-Western sentiment. There are many Russians who are pro-West and liberal, but they are a minority in comparison to the nationalist and Eurasianist minded Russian population. Because if Putin truly doesn’t have support, the support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have already collapsed.
Russia is testing if NATO is indeed an anti-Russia alliance. It may well be, although Russians culturally distinguish themselves from the West and would never align with the latter. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, the man responsible for the collapse of communism, still expressed concerns about NATO expansion. Russia even set up CSTO, as something of a counter to NATO, with several former Soviet republics. So, this clearly shows Russia wants to be independent from the West and carve their own influence; that ideology being called Eurasianist.
Keep in mind though that the West and Putin were friendly in the 00s but the former keep questioning the human rights issue in Russia. So, I think this annoyed Putin (as many dictators tend to be when questioned about human rights) and only galvanised his and Russia’s anti-Western sentiment. There are many Russians who are pro-West and liberal, but they are a minority in comparison to the nationalist and Eurasianist minded Russian population. Because if Putin truly doesn’t have support, the support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have already collapsed.
lmao