As a kid I still remember Berlin wall being brought down. What followed was an unsuccessful coup in Soviet Union leading to it disintegration. The Cold war was over.
What followed was humiliation of Kremlin. West gloated on its victory and forgot about the ‘overnight’ capitalist Moscow – with ration queues reminiscent of the great depression.
Russian though survived. Mistreated and misunderstood by rest of the world started looking for their place in the changed world. In the intervening years of unipolar world, China expanded in the vacuum and Indians had moved on US.
The Soviet disintegration was unplanned and too sudden leaving massive Russian interests in the ex-Soviet republics. Some of which were too close to Russians to give up. First it was west active involvement with Chechen rebels only to discover that the insurgency had Islamic radioactivity embedded into it.
The present Russian resurgence can in when Georgia challenged Russian peace keepers in South Ossetia. Predominantly Russian province had broken away from Georgia in a civil war just after the downfall of Soviet Union. Russia had enforced peace by sending troops ‘peace keepers’ and creating a Georgian Enclave that was independent for all practical purposes. Georgians by Invading into the territory attacked Russian troops (which was nothing more than a local police force). The distress call was heard in Kremlin while the World celebrated opening of Beijing Olympics and rest as they say is History.
The Georgian misadventure was broadly based in West’s support to it.
History was repeated in Ukraine when Donbass and Crimea didn’t support west’s view.
Every time west complained against Russians, its intelligence agencies lead the pack which tormented the hurt bear and then Bear got angry.
The recent alleged Russian killings in London are as irresponsible as it gets. Unless Westminster was looking for an opportunity to downgrade its relations with Kremlin, even if the allegation were true, it were just a spy game fit to be played on by MI6 or CIA. By Involving politicians west is doing more damage to itself.
The Russians are very much a growing power to reckon with. Moscow never had friends in west, so West’s attempt to downgrade its relationship is a zero sum game at best. As a re-surging power China is using Russian relationships to its advantage. While west channels its power to contain a hypothetical Russian aggression, the real Russia expands.
