[Bokababe]

"But it does sound like a plan to fool the west into thinking they were going to reform. Wouldn't the plan come before the implementation?

Yes, except that this statement was made before the Soviet Union collapsed -- and we have never allowed ourselves to be that vulnerable since then. If anything, we've gone the other direction completely, treating Russia as though the Cold War was still on at a time when we had no cause to (especially back in the 1990's), because Russia had neither had the means nor the intent of being a threat to us or to Europe during that period.

[TigersEye]

The point is did it collapse or did it just execute a plan to reallocate its priorities while letting the west think they had changed? I for one have never thought they had changed and have always thought we had good cause to distrust them. They just dumped all those poverty ridden (thanks to Soviet control) contentious republics to fend for themselves. Meanwhile keeping a thumb on them or at least a finger in their pie while Russia builds economic ties with the west and develops its resources instead of its military industrial complex. Making nice so the west armors down and they make a show of armoring down.

I also don't see that America has "gone the other direction." I'm sorry but that's just about offensive to suggest that America in any way has become an imperialistic conquering empire. We've been carrying the load and juggling all the proxy wars and threats to western civilization that Russia and China have intentionally fomented for decades.