>>990956Well, a lot of oligarch pre-Putin were young members of the beaurocracy, having been groomed into the position by Yeltsin/the West, who were perfectly willing to let Russia balkanize itself in order to make more cash and over fist. Something that even Putin wasn't willing to do (not for benevolent reason, mind you, it was less about protecting people and more about becoming completely powerless against people perfectly willing to depose you the moment you weren't useful to them anymore). He put a stop the most rampant looting happening during the time, which, of course, is something completely unacceptable to the west.
There used to be an article by trots which reflected on the reason why the holocaust happened the way it did, and it put forward the argument that, as long as nazi germany looked liked it was reasonably able to win the war against the USSR, they were perfectly willing to "just" slowly grind jews into dust by having them worked to death. It was their imminent defeat at the hands of their enemies which kicked their killings into overdrive, as both a means to "at least achieve something in their grand schemes", and as last fuck you before their eventual demise, even if it meant that those people were now unavaiable for work in the factories.
I think a similar mindset is at work here, and I don't think the argument that "sure, they were trading and shiet" holds much water here (it's just typical bougie shit trying to make bucks). The US isn't just crumbling to dust, it's folding into itself while the rest of the world watches, so I think there is a decent amount of old farts who try to tackle their great Satan to score at least SOME legitimacy points, even if long term disposing it means one less bogeyman to scare the population into compliance.
Another point in regards to Yurop and Russia, is that the EU (and especially Germany) have been desperately trying to get public support for an european military complex, both to directly point cash into their own pockets, and for neocolonial projects to protect their own interests, for example against the new Silk Road by China. As such, this conflict is very much a massive long-term benefit for kraut politicians, who can now literally justify any measure under the pretense of the asiatic barbarian threatening them, blaming their own plundering (which they'd done regard
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