The Russia-Ukraine conflict over the past two years has revealed that the West's attitude towards Russia is not much different from that of the Soviet Union. Despite a series of cooperative initiatives, the wind of confrontation has never dissipated. In times of calm, the United States, Britain and other Western countries will create some incidents and then impose sanctions on Russia;In times of turmoil, military confrontation is directly adopted.
This attitude reveals that the relationship between the West and Russia is not a so-called "partnership" at all, but a thoroughly hostile posture. Although there has been a brief honeymoon period between the two, the word "enemy" is a more accurate way to sum up the relationship. For more than three decades, Russia has harbored the naïve idea that the collapse of the Soviet Union would no longer be targeted.
Even the current Russian ** Putin once had similar naïve thoughts, and only recently did he completely see the reality. According to "Reference News", Putin admitted that he had misjudged in a Russian program called "Moscow Kremlin Putin". Although he worked in the Soviet security apparatus and foreign intelligence services for nearly 20 years, he also served as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, head of the FSB, secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, and even prime minister for a while.
Putin noted that he had naively believed that the world led by the "civilized world" had realized that Russia had become another country altogether, and that ideological confrontation no longer existed, because there was no basis for confrontation.
Later, when Putin witnessed the West's unfriendly actions towards Russia, he did not change his naïve belief and still naively believed that the West had only maintained the inertia of confrontation with the Soviet Union in its thinking and behavior. In his opinion, this is just a Xi, a Xi of continuing to confront Russia.
However, in the end, it turned out that the hostility of the West towards Russia was not a fiction, but that Putin himself once understood it too simply. This hostility is real, and his naïve beliefs are ruthlessly shattered by reality.
Putin has come to realize how naïve he was. He revealed that the West had planned to divide Russia into several parts in order to subjugate it to the West and tried to weaken Russia by tapping into its resources. Putin said with emotion: "I realized this later, and my initial idea was quite naïve. ”
In recent times, Putin has more than once mentioned his naivety, which is seen as a typical miscalculation during his time in power. The reason why he keeps emphasizing this point is to warn Russians not to misjudge the situation again, to stop believing the rhetoric of the West, and not to see the West as a constant partner. A true partnership should be based on cooperation, not constant confrontation.
Continuing to behave with the West as a partner will only lead to the West becoming more unscrupulous. Putin made it clear that the West will be truly at ease only after Russia is freed from its influence. The West has been in confrontation with Moscow since the days of the USSR, and the theme of this confrontation has continued throughout the history after World War II. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West is still unwilling to give up its suppression of Russia.
The West can only be at ease if Russia is freed from the shackles of the West. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has become very similar to the West in terms of systems and beliefs, but the West is still unwilling to accept Russia's existence.
Russia has tried to emulate the model of the "Western countries" in the hope of fitting in. However, the harsh reality shows that the West has never let go of its confrontational posture with Russia. Even once part of the G8, Russia has never really been accepted into the inner circle of the West. Now, after the G8 has become the G7, this small circle is even more hostile to Russia.
Even if Russia imitated the West, it failed to win the approval of the West. Putin has now come to his senses and no longer has illusions.
As for how the West treats Russia, as Putin said, the United States can feel at ease only by dividing Russia into several parts, and only when Russia disappears completely. Otherwise, the confrontation with Russia will never stop.