If your best bet is hoping someone is going to be on their best behavior with no real alternative, especially on a national scale, your plans are bad and you should feel bad.
The plan was always that a good economic partnership would prevent any military confrontations. What was never really considered was Ukraine, another energy producing country, leaving Russia’s sphere of influence in favour of a closer relationship with the EU which made it competition to Russia’s oil and gas industry.
The whole thing blew up when rich corrupt people had their monopoly threatened.
Wasn’t it part of normalising relations with russia post cold war, hoping they’d behave fucking normally instead of the crap they’re doing now?
If your best bet is hoping someone is going to be on their best behavior with no real alternative, especially on a national scale, your plans are bad and you should feel bad.
It was… but Russian has invaded or conducted multiple military operations in many different countries since Putin came to power…
After say the first 5 maybe the West should have recognized that Russia wasn’t going to be the partner they wanted them to be…
The plan was always that a good economic partnership would prevent any military confrontations. What was never really considered was Ukraine, another energy producing country, leaving Russia’s sphere of influence in favour of a closer relationship with the EU which made it competition to Russia’s oil and gas industry.
The whole thing blew up when rich corrupt people had their monopoly threatened.