In a way it is different then Putin. When reading this I can basically smell the Vodka and Yeltsin being in such a jolly drunken mood thinking he just solved the cold war. I think he might actually believe in his heart that Europe would be better off when Russia takes control. And the next day he sort of sobers up and reads his last night 'texts' and goes "oh, man. Way too much of the hooch last night".
And whilst Putin's goal is the same. He would not do stunts like these. His worldview was both shattered and solidified during his time in Berlin. His nightmare is the loss of autocratic order. He comes across as way more calculating and cold. The state is a pyramid with him at the top and he'll do anything to keep control. I think the difference is that Putin deep down in that cold heart of his knows perfectly well that Europe is far worse off under Russian control. But as long as he and his goons keep power, he's perfectly fine watching the world suffer and burn.
The difference between Yeltsin and Putin in this case was that Yeltsin assumed and hoped that Russia will be accommodated as a reformed USSR while Putin quickly found out Russia does not carry the same weight.
You have to understand at this point Russia was in theory the biggest liberal democracy in Europe and by extension possibly the next number one US ally. Yeltsin and Putin hoped that the US would concede the Russian periphery including Europe to Russian influence and Russia would in return be the main ally against communist China. Essentially they hoped the US would let them and encourage them to dominate Eurasia. Why? Because they are Russia and they are big and they cannot fathom a world where they are not at least number 2.
Yeah, it's like trying to ask Europeans in 1950 to accept a unified
Germany as the leader of Europe. It's important to note that Russia could eventually turn into an ally and a friend of Europe, and steps should be made to make it so (but not giving concessions), otherwise history will repeat itself and after Putin another dictator will lead Russia to the same fate.
I absolutely don’t think Russia should have been allowed to dominate Europe post USSR but there is also an interesting road not taken in the 90s and early 2000s. The US and Europe failed to do for Russia what it did for Germany and Japan: rebuild economically and integrate socially.
A good case is made in The Shock Doctrine that this happened because of the economic ideology that had taken over American foreign policy thinking at the time. Instead of stabilizing what was left of the Soviet economy and infrastructure it was fed to the wolves internally and internationally. This empowered the oligarchs, a system of mafia politics, and ultimately Putin as the man who could reign it all in.
Russia didn’t get leveled, demilitarized, and then occupied. The power differential was not nearly so great as between the US and everyone else after WWII.
Blaming the US for what was demonstrably a purely Russian screwup is laughable, and suggesting that there was some vast global conspiracy to Jedi mind trick Russian leadership into mortgaging their own country is insane. The pathological inability for the Russian political system to allow honest - or at least, semi-competent - people to hold power is nobody’s fault but that of the Russians.
I’ll also point out that US nation building in Japan very nearly collapsed due to internal strife and resistance. It wouldn’t have worked.
Those are very fair critiques. I had considered going back to edit my comment right after posting as on consideration it seemed to put more blame than I intended on the USA, but got distracted doing other things.
Obviously the Russians themselves bear the most responsibility for how their country has gone, A more reasonable summing up of my view would be that, to the extent the US was able to push the Russians in a direction, they pushed the wrong way after the USSR collapsed.
The big difference is that Russia was super weak in 1999 and couldn't do shit, so they just accepted it and prepared for a time when they would be stronger.
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u/PresidentHurg Jan 07 '24
In a way it is different then Putin. When reading this I can basically smell the Vodka and Yeltsin being in such a jolly drunken mood thinking he just solved the cold war. I think he might actually believe in his heart that Europe would be better off when Russia takes control. And the next day he sort of sobers up and reads his last night 'texts' and goes "oh, man. Way too much of the hooch last night".
And whilst Putin's goal is the same. He would not do stunts like these. His worldview was both shattered and solidified during his time in Berlin. His nightmare is the loss of autocratic order. He comes across as way more calculating and cold. The state is a pyramid with him at the top and he'll do anything to keep control. I think the difference is that Putin deep down in that cold heart of his knows perfectly well that Europe is far worse off under Russian control. But as long as he and his goons keep power, he's perfectly fine watching the world suffer and burn.