>>>>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.
I didn’t necessarily say that Putin was Slavophilic, just that Russians periodically are, and Putin has to respect that when they are.
More so, Slavs are divided into eastern and western Slavs, with Russia mostly concerned with the eastern and Balkan Slavs. It’s not a particularly nice relationship, both protective and controlling. Even today, Russians are resentful at the eastern European western Slavs who are angry with the post-war Russian occupation. The Russians think they should have been grateful.
Trying to label Putin is not easy, because he is both appropriately nationalistic and recovery oriented, hoping to reestablish the alliances of the Soviet Union, such as Syria, Cuba, and others. Likewise, he has a love/hate relationship with China, that is now menacing Siberia, demographically, if not militarily.
On top of that, Putin has to embrace the Russian Orthodox church against both Islam and the other Christian and other religions that would culturally invade Russia.
It is a right royal mess, and he is in charge of it.