[cunning_fish]

>>>>The Putin regime is hardly Slavophile. Putin has been aggressive and antagonistic to other Slavic nations. He threaten Poland with missile attacks and he said Ukraine was “not even a real country.” Russia’s only Slavic ally is Belarus, and even they don’t like each other very much. Russia pays lip service the Serbs, but remember, the Croats are Slavic too. Even Serbia wants to join the EU because Putin pulled Russia’s troops out of Serbia and abandoned them to their fate.<<<<

You are right. Putin is a “westernist” by Russian standard. Earlier Putin is the most pro-American leader in Russian history as well. He was first to call Bush and offered real support to US after 9/11, he has practically handed Central Asia into US control for counter-terror efforts. He offered tons of valuable intelligence and so on in war on terror.

The problem is it ended with NATO enlargement and missile shield deal for Europe, Kosovo, more gay rights promotion in Russia etc. These things are very sensitive for Russian voters and he was close to be impeached.

Putin was a good learner. No more goodies for American communist government.

[Nowhere Man]

I think we lost a good opportunity to bring Russia closer to us during the 1990’s to the GW Bush era.

[Tailgunner Joe]

If Putin was pro-American, then he would be a slavophile. After all, the slavic countries he is hostile to are all America's NATO allies. That's why he is hostile to them, because they are friend of the USA, and friends of the USA are enemies to Putin.