“There are fools, here on FR, who think we can or should be “friends” with Putin’s Russia...”
I don’t know of anybody who wants to be friends but even President Trump has said he thinks we can get along with them. Better than a war over another middle eastern hellhole.
Russia is not to be trusted - EVER.
A hard-core communist is a communist until death.
They never change their stripes, they change tactics.
And if they say otherwise, they are lying.
You cannot “get along” with either and individual or an entity when there is no basis for trust.