Interesting.
“Vlad, too? Interesting.”
He actually was trying to have Russia join the West, as the real fear of Russia has always been China.
But as the West went from a trading block (expanded Common Market) to a political block, he gave up on them, as they tried to tell him how to run his country (giving him orders on immigration, energy, etc.). Now Russia is forced into their uneasy alliance with China, because we gave them no choice.