Edward Lozansky is a prominent former Soviet dissident. He is the president of the American University in Moscow.
As Germany and many other nations celebrate the 25th anniversary of the demolition of Berlin Wall, the event which symbolized the end of the Cold War, it is important to analyze why U.S. – Russia relations are presently at an even more confrontational state, and why Francis Fukuyama’s famously-proclaimed the “end of history” due to West’s triumphal victory over USSR was just wishful thinking by a great philosopher.
A recent poll in Russia has shown that 87 percent of Russians believe that Western criticism of Russia and Putin over Ukraine – and practically over everything else – is hostile, unfair, and eventually aimed at regime change in this country and at its ultimate ruin and disintegration.
It is nowadays hard to believe that a mere 25 years ago the situation was exactly the reverse. All Russia was in love with America and Europe, seen as an embodiment of all that was civilized, a world of human rights, democracy, and freedom; in short, the opposite of the totalitarian system imposed on the people by the Communist Party.
The Russians sincerely believed that the moment they threw off the Communist rule, they would be heartily welcomed into the family of free and democratic nations as equal partners in the new brotherhood of men.
Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and later Russian president Boris Yeltsin naively expected that Moscow would be quickly integrated into European economic and security structures, and judging from the public rhetoric of George H.W. Bush and some leaders of “old” Western Europe there was at least an impression that they were inclined that way.
Complete story at - Russian news: The West's Fatal Russia Mistakes: 1989-2014 - Russia Insider
As Germany and many other nations celebrate the 25th anniversary of the demolition of Berlin Wall, the event which symbolized the end of the Cold War, it is important to analyze why U.S. – Russia relations are presently at an even more confrontational state, and why Francis Fukuyama’s famously-proclaimed the “end of history” due to West’s triumphal victory over USSR was just wishful thinking by a great philosopher.
A recent poll in Russia has shown that 87 percent of Russians believe that Western criticism of Russia and Putin over Ukraine – and practically over everything else – is hostile, unfair, and eventually aimed at regime change in this country and at its ultimate ruin and disintegration.
It is nowadays hard to believe that a mere 25 years ago the situation was exactly the reverse. All Russia was in love with America and Europe, seen as an embodiment of all that was civilized, a world of human rights, democracy, and freedom; in short, the opposite of the totalitarian system imposed on the people by the Communist Party.
The Russians sincerely believed that the moment they threw off the Communist rule, they would be heartily welcomed into the family of free and democratic nations as equal partners in the new brotherhood of men.
Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and later Russian president Boris Yeltsin naively expected that Moscow would be quickly integrated into European economic and security structures, and judging from the public rhetoric of George H.W. Bush and some leaders of “old” Western Europe there was at least an impression that they were inclined that way.
Complete story at - Russian news: The West's Fatal Russia Mistakes: 1989-2014 - Russia Insider
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