What is it that they call the “Great war”?
Prior to the war, most of their issues were internal, but now they pan to project power in the same way that China is currently doing, but Chinese need oil..The Russians need something else. They need revenge and the symbolism it would represent.. The EU would go along to get along.
It's the Chinese who have always despised foreign interventions going far back into history. The Russian historical view does not go back that far, except for their distrust of their czardom past. A past that they are currently and unwittingly recreating.
Post 48
That’s simply not borne out. They have a need not to be attacked by Europe again. And that is what they perceive happening in Ukraine. EU and US funded rioters overthrew a government.
Remember it was only about a year ago that Russia evicted USAID and other NGOs because they were working to build political opposition inside Russia.
The other need they have is to make money and raise standards of living. Cold war fantasies will not give you a roadmap here.
Also,, if there is any pride element here, we stuck Kosovo and Serbia right up their wazzoo. That was the first time we let them know how the post USSR Russia would be treated. I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t aware that they are now sticking Crimea and parts of Ukraine up the wests wazzoo. They aren’t above that, just to make a point.
After they emboldened the Germans by agreeing to carve up Poland in the Non-Aggression Pact.