Betrayal of Russia

There are some in America who think that they've won the Cold War. They are wrong. The Cold War ended the way that it did because the Soviet Union elected a noble-minded leader who tried to make the place more democratic and more humane. In 1991, this leader was placed under house arrest, and the Communist hardliners sent in tanks into the Red Square to confront the people who poured into the Red Square. The military however refused to follow the  orders to shoot; and the Soviet Union was no more.

And what does Russia get for this noble decision but having the country plundered and its people treated like trash.

The Nazi Germany did many things more wrong than did the Soviet Union; but after the Second World War they were welcomed into the world. The result was Germany becoming a prosperous and beautiful country. The people at that time rightly said that the problem was not with Germany but with Nazism. So they prosecuted the leaders of Nazism but left everyone else alone, so that Germany was able to rise as high as the efforts of its people would take it.

Whereas with Russia, we have seen a predatory attitude and a very real betrayal. Russians looked up to the West, but the West for a long time did not do much in Russia except build a few cigarette factories and make deals to transfer Russian wealth into Swiss banks. The Russians have every reason to be angry about this state of affairs; and of course the place is at no shortage of opportunities for unscrupulous politicians to take advantage of this anger.

The West needs to reach out to Russia. The errors of the two previous decades should be overcome, and intelligence should triumph over ignorance. The Russians have every reason to be angry; and it is important that the West talk to this sentiment before skinheads or Communists do.