Russia is not, has never, and never will be a friend of the United States. That is not a reason to hate it. Just something to bear in mind.
Evidence of your position?
100%. Dealing with Russaia and Russians requires a playbook that is different from all others. The coven of vampires we have in State Dept./CIA/DOD are not up to the task. They are engorged from soaking in blood.
Yeah they actually were before the communist revolution. They sided with us in the civil war and sent their fleet to protect us from a British incursion on behalf of the south. During the Soviet era they sucked.
After the Soviet collapse the offered numerous hands of friendship were slapped away with sneering disdain.
Putin was the first leader to call Bush after 9/11. He didn’t just offer condolences and prayers, but offered free immediate Treaty free use of old Soviet air bases surrounding Afghanistan. When are Pakistani allies would not let us move cargo into Afghanistan, Putin let our cargo arrive at Baltic ports and move on Russian rail all the way across the country down to Afghanistan. They warned us repeatedly about the Boston bombers. They were good partners in the space program when the shuttle failed and eventually retired.
They let us crawl through Soviet KGB archives in astonishing detail. They let us crawl all over their nuclear arsenal nationwide. Putin warned us in massive detail about not following the Soviet descent into socialist madness.
They went on a church building spree rebuilding and consecrating churches destroy by the Soviets. Putin released a document where Stalin ordered the C Katyn forest murders, was the first Russian leader to openly admit it was true, and ordered the polish movie Katyn to be showed on all Russian public TV networks in a big event. They offered to send their efforts to help restore Notre Dame. They offered their giant fire tanker for use and were refused.
But the one thing he didn’t allow was for the west to install who they wanted and for us to repeat the western plunder of the 90s.
And now thanks to the neocons and bankers, we finally have the war they always dreamed of. But yes, except for the Soviet era they have tried several times to show goodwill and friendship.
Hell, an argument can be made that the Czars order of the breaktop 44 saved Smith and Wesson.
Russia is a challenger, but it doesn’t have to be an enemy, unless we are aiming for complete global power (which we’ll never have). A wiser administration would manage this competition and focus on more important problems.