I find this to be somewhat schizophrenic and more importantly, idealist to the point of treason. First because two people with the same name wrote it, and second, more to the point, anybody, anybody in the West who tries to consider Moscow as a fair actor now is akin to the profs, writers and artists who carried Communist Party cards in the 50s and 60s.
I mean, they were actually more defensible: they did not know then how corrupt, vicious and oppressive the Russian leadership were. They thought they were dealing with Catherines or Peters, not Ivans or Vladimirs. They were wrong.
The fact is the Right, across the West, were zealous, punitive to the left worldwide, in their attempt to counter Communism and often caused more harm than good in their anti-Leftism during the Cold War. They were harsh toward Russia and paranoid about the spread of Communism.
The fact today is the Right were right about Russian culture and leadership though. It is not benign. They were not taunted in the 90s or thereafter by the West/US. They were and are expansionist, violent, bigoted and extreme to the point that anything the US/West have done since, well the 18th century, is reasonable in comparison.
These self critiques are all fine and well until you find yourself outside of a democracy. I suggest you move to Russia and offer a similar critique.
More to the point, the Ukraine, all those in NATO, all in the EU, all those who the Russians have abused for centuries, WANT to be part of the West, and capitalism, and all its warts. Nobody wants to be part of that hellhole of a regime that is slowly killing itself and its culture.
I find this to be somewhat schizophrenic and more importantly, idealist to the point of treason. First because two people with the same name wrote it, and second, more to the point, anybody, anybody in the West who tries to consider Moscow as a fair actor now is akin to the profs, writers and artists who carried Communist Party cards in the 50s and 60s.
I mean, they were actually more defensible: they did not know then how corrupt, vicious and oppressive the Russian leadership were. They thought they were dealing with Catherines or Peters, not Ivans or Vladimirs. They were wrong.
The fact is the Right, across the West, were zealous, punitive to the left worldwide, in their attempt to counter Communism and often caused more harm than good in their anti-Leftism during the Cold War. They were harsh toward Russia and paranoid about the spread of Communism.
The fact today is the Right were right about Russian culture and leadership though. It is not benign. They were not taunted in the 90s or thereafter by the West/US. They were and are expansionist, violent, bigoted and extreme to the point that anything the US/West have done since, well the 18th century, is reasonable in comparison.
These self critiques are all fine and well until you find yourself outside of a democracy. I suggest you move to Russia and offer a similar critique.
More to the point, the Ukraine, all those in NATO, all in the EU, all those who the Russians have abused for centuries, WANT to be part of the West, and capitalism, and all its warts. Nobody wants to be part of that hellhole of a regime that is slowly killing itself and its culture.