[whyilovetexas111]

They want to ensure Ukraine is not a real country. Why Russia was not made the first nation to join NATO after the USSR died really bothers me.

[Boogieman]

“Why Russia was not made the first nation to join NATO after the USSR died really bothers me.”

LOL! Let’s just let Nazis join the Jewish Defense League while we’re at it.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Why Russia was not made the first nation to join NATO after the USSR died really bothers me.

They were offered this. Russia declined and instead asked to be put in charge of NATO.

[Manuel OKelley]

agreed.

A properly built US/Russia alliance could have easily kept China in check and from gaining the power they have.

[Rockingham]

Post-Soviet Russia, which was and continues to be controlled by a reconstituted KGB allied with Russia's mafia and the corrupt oligarch class, did not want to join NATO for the sake of a genuine alliance but instead wanted to gain and exploit access to our technology and intelligence and markets while they would continue to go their own way politically and pull NATO to pieces at their leisure.

The mistake of the US and Western Europe lay in our failure -- and perhaps our inability -- to assist Russia's reformers in developing and implementing a program that would effectively build a modern, democratic nation out of the rubble left by the collapse of Soviet Communism. This failure has fundamental causes beyond our own lack of wisdom.

A family friend who is a recent, high profile Cuban defector who also studied in the USSR is deeply pessimistic about Cuba's near term prospects for becoming a free country. In his view, Communism has so degraded the character of the Cuban people that they will take decades to redevelop the moral qualities required to govern themselves as a free people.

After seven decades of Communism, the Russians were in far worse shape. Unlike the occupied nations of Central Europe, Russia had no memory of and private values and culture of freedom to provide a ready basis for a post-Communist free society.

Perhaps, in the long view of history, Putin's regime will end up being a transition, with Russia eventually becoming a modern, democratic nation. In the meanwhile though, they will be a menace, with Putin's corrupt and thuggish regime being a dead end that is at odds with Russia's best interests and likely future.