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I don’t think such Cold War thinking is operable today. There is no fundamental ideological divide between Russia and US — both countries have changed so this is just not Capitalism vs Communism any more.

That's why you don't think "cold war thinking" is operable. But you are wrong that there is no "fundamental ideological divide." Russia is a totalitarian state without rights for its individuals. Like Communism, it is basically a massive and murderous kleptocracy that dominates every level of society:

From a Russian who escaped there and is now living in the U.S.:

"In simple terms, Russia is a mafia state. All the way from Moscow to regions and to small towns, everything is controlled by various mafia gangs. Police and judiciary are parts of most powerful gangs. They usually assist in extortion or theft of property earned by local small and medium size businessmen. Big business is subject to federal mafia clan wars.

The mafia-state formation is logical consequence of Russian economy: it is totally dominated by oil and gas revenues. Oil, gas and derivatives provide meaningful employment to about 1M people. Russian population is about 150M. How do they survive? The majority depends on various forms of government handouts.

With russian-style oil production you don’t have to think, innovate or even hire smart people. All you have to do is to cash the check. Gazprom is ranked as one of the most grossly inefficient enterprises in the world. So what happens when a small, totally incompetent minority controls country-wide oil rent while the rest of 149 million people are a burden? The answer is obvious: that 1M would create a mafia state to keep the rest of 149M in check by means of police and judiciary abuse and mass propaganda.

Russian propaganda machine is vast, it now exceeds the one of Soviet Union. Official TV propaganda lies professionally and constantly. There are no independent TV channels; everything is controlled by government stooges. The “news” teams employ special teams that do video editing and fabrications to present absolutely falsified accounts for TV transmission. Then these fabrications are broadcast to brainwash captive population.

The population at large is, statistically speaking, not very bright. Many are deranged from overuse of alcohol or drugs. A big number are simply aging elderly rooted in USSR-centric mindset who never adjusted to the modern world. Most of them do not “work” in the sense we understand full-time employment here: they occupy placeholder positions sponsored by the government. Being dependent their whole life on government help, they are psychologically unable even to think government can do something wrong."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3189416/posts

Russia is an Empire of lies and depends on violence and intimidation to exist. It's media tell its people every day that the USA is an evil country and must be annihilated-- that they ought to establish an empire, that everyone in the world ought to live like them (and what they are are groveling slaves ruled by thugs).

There is such a thing as a national character, despite the claims that culture doesn't matter. The national character of Russia is a slavish and bloody monster. They can never be compatible with us. We are founded on entirely different values.

And don't shout out "the Russians are Christian!" It is a country where the majority of people identify as members of the Russian Orthodox Church for purely chauvinistic reasons, but only 2-3 percent even bother to attend on an Easter. Their ROC is run by a known member of the KGB who wears expensive watches. They have believers who march around with icons of Joseph Stalin next to icons of the virgin Mary. And anyone who is not Russian Orthodox is subject to intense persecution.

In Ukraine, Christian Churches, whether protestant or Catholic, are being actively taken over and pastors tortured and murdered.

NATO should be dead. The US should avoid a European war.

Your foolishness would lead to the death of us all.