Or in the alternative, NATO should have invited Russia to join.
The U.S. should have befriended Russia after the Cold War, the same way it befriended Germany and Japan.
Instead, American "economic advisers" assisted the oligarchs in financially raping the Russian people, while the Neocons gloated and rubbed Russia's face in its collapse.
Little wonder that the Russian people turned to a strongman who would "make Russia great again."
George Kennan would agree with you. He stated, “Expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the post cold-war era. Such a decision may be expected . . . to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking.”
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first NATO supreme veallied commander. Shortly after assuming that post, he wrote these words in February 1951:
“If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project [NATO] will have failed.”
“One can only wonder at his reaction today (1997) if he learned that 46 years later, the United States was the dominant force in a plan not just to continue our powerful military presence there but to enlarge NATO’s responsibilities and increase U.S. costs and risks in Europe. If his granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, is any guide to his reaction, he would not be pleased. She gathered an impressive group of 49 military, political and academic leaders who joined her in signing an open letter to President Clinton on June 26 that terms the plan to expand NATO “a policy error of historic proportions.”
A lost opportunity for sure. In retrospect, there was nothing we could do. President Bill Clinton could propose a Marshall Plan for Russia but he'll get nowhere with it at the time. Republicans took control of Congress. We were actually serious about balancing the budget at that time.
Besides even if we sent them money, it may not do them any good. We know how corrupt they are. And we are not going to actually occupy the country to educate them on "Western standard of living".