Quote:
Originally Posted by haku
Indeed, Yeltsin wanted Russia to break away from the USSR, he wanted it to collapse and disappear just like all other Eastern European countries, and that's why Russia's relations with its neighbors and the West were so good at the time, in the mid 90s there were even talks of Russia eventually joining NATO and the EU… Those days are long gone....
Those who had warned already in the early 90s that we would have a short window to spread and consolidate democracy to Eastern Europe before Russia would revert to an authoritarian regime turned out to be absolutely right.
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Eltsin and his politics failed. Maybe you are not fully aware of this. He gave away Russia's wealth (of ressources) to the mafia aka "family", and the people were at the edge of starvation. The turbulences about that made the nationalist military fraction strong. Putin is no democrat, he is the fire brigade. Civil war, return to communism or military dictatorship were the other options. I think, what we have got, is not the worst of all cases, but democracy has lost. Seen as a whole, sacrificing democracy for a prospering Russian population is not that bad.
The relationship between the other countries and Russia were so good in Eltsin's time, because every country had their profit from Russia's decline, but not the Russian people. This is now a movement in the other direction. It's time of retaliation of all involved parties but when they have seen that it doesn't bring benefit, then reason will have a chance again.
Patience and foresighted policy is necessary now, not accusations, threats and revenge. When Russian policy can work relaxed, then democracy and good relation with their neighbours will follow sooner or later.