Uno de los que participaron en el saqueo del país en esa época fue Putin casualmente, en negocios de venta exterior a un precio menor de activos del Estado. Pero la culpa es nuestra, claro.
Not just NATO, not just Ukraine and Georgia. A lot more. We walked all over the Russians when they were down in the 1990s; basically taking over the country and looting it. We refused to welcome them into the geopolitical West; instead choosing to keep them out even when there was no dispute with them.
We attacked Serbia multiple times in the 1990s. We carried out many color revolutions (Serbia 2000, Georgia 2003, Ukraine 2004, 2014, Kyrgyztan 2005, Belarus 2006, Azerbaijan 2005). We armed and trained the Ukrainian armed forces. Then we rejected Putin’s ultimatum demanding Ukranian neutrality.
The road to the Russo-Western confrontation has been long and winding. The only reason it took so long for Moscow to throw down the gauntlet was because it was busy building up its strength.
Russia is now stronger than it has been since the Soviet capitulation. They have outgunned the West. Now they finish the job in Ukraine, then take the Baltics, and then retake their position at the head of the European table.
There is a reason why Russia was the dominant European power for decades after Napoleon, why the British were so intent on the Entente, why it was the Russians who defeated Hitler’s armies, and why Russia was the dominant power in Eurasia for a good half century thereafter.
The reason has to do with the deep intrinsic sources of Russian power, it’s central geopolitical position, and the imperial political culture that is responsible for Russia’s willingness to take on the entire geopolitical West.
Russia is the leader of the global insurgency against the West. When the West is defeated, the author of that defeat will be above all Moscow.
The West’s geopolitical error was to read temporary Russian weakness in the 1990s as a permanent state of affairs. It was incorrect even in 1994, as was pointed out already back then by no less an authority than Kennan himself. Instead, we listened to a Polish immigrant with an axe to grind.