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shillyshally t1_j1y0243 wrote

That's the only thing Russia did right and they did that by accident.

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Anoscetia t1_j1ydw5k wrote

They also strengthened the bond of countries in NATO beyond belief and supercharged cooperation in other ways than purely militarily. If Putin had waited maybe a decade longer (I know he might not have that long) the alliance might have crumbled. Now it's as strong as it has ever been.

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Northstar1989 t1_j1zxspe wrote

>If Putin had waited maybe a decade longer (I know he might not have that long) the alliance might have crumbled. Now it's as strong as it has ever been

And spent the whole time trying to smear Ukraine's reputation and disrupt the alliance in subtle ways, maybe.

Putin is impatient, though. He's called the collapse of the Soviet Union one of the greatest tragedies of human history (he's not entirely wrong, but he's right for the wrong reasons entirely... The US utterly failed to help most of the successor states and millions of people went through untold levels of suffering and, hundreds of thousands contracted diseases like HIV and Liver Cancer due to excessive drinking and IV drug use as a result... Capitalist NeoConservative greed for the win...) and is determined to make a strong start on rebuilding the Russian empire within in his lifetime, no matter the human cost...

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neglectedselenium t1_j20c7ty wrote

Well firsr of all, that's the feature of authoritarianism: they all grow impatient, they have no correct info and are surrounded by the yes men. In case of putin, he doesn't even use the technology. Second, the US was always open to post soviet russia. Hell, they were even invited to G7. They were given massive aid, but because of the widespread corruption, the money was stolen. Russian Democracy ended in 1993 when tanks were deployed against the Parliament

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Northstar1989 t1_j2521nb wrote

> were given massive aid,

No they were not.

The historical facts simply don't back your bogus assertions.

Several high-ranking members of the US intelligence community and several senators/Congressmen even went on record that it was a mistake NOT to provide the kind of massive aid you described. It should have happened, but it never did.

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DynamicResonater t1_j25cvrq wrote

The collapse of the USSR was a tragedy that could have been avoided if the US didn't have Bush in office at the time. Gorbachev was on the right track and had he succeeded in his reforms, Russia would look a lot more like Sweden or Norway right now. Yes, the USA ruined one of the greatest opportunities in history to make the world a better, more stable place.

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Northstar1989 t1_j25hvx8 wrote

I agree.

Bush and some of the Reagan admin holdover (particularly in the CIA) only saw an opportunity to collapse a rival, whereas Gorbachev was attempting the extremely difficult task of reforming the Soviet Union into a group of Democratic Socialist republics with actual multi-party elections...

I'm pretty sure that version of Russia, had it come to be, would be a much better version than the current Dictatorial Kleptocracy run by Putin.

Of course, even with US help the whole thing likely would have still fallen apart. It just would have been much more of a "soft landing" (gentle/bloodless dissolution) rather than wars (Chechnya), uprisings (Baltic states), and a massive portion of the Russian population falling into poverty and alcoholism/drugs/organized crime.

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