I did question the US propaganda side of it. I didn't deny our interests in the HIID and the movements, I just pointed out how naive it is to assume we were the only ones unduly influencing the "recovery" of Russia. The Russian actors went beyond that brief period of history.
I certainly haven't seen a break down, because I doubt it exists anywhere outside of Langley, but I would imagine its a pretty equal split on the number of the Russian oligarchs who got rich in that scheme that got purged by Putin vs those that crawled into bed with him. Those oligarchs who supported Putin worked with the HIID just as much as the HIID worked with them.
I am NOT defending the Russian or the American oligarchs who stole everything but the kitchen sink, utterly disgracing the idea of "openness to the West" among the Russian people, who were bludgeoned and provoked into wanting a strong leader to stop the chaos and disintegration and inflation. It was an unlivable situation. The Russian people thought they would be brought into the Western fold. The Americans who sold the idea of sudden absolute and across the board (corrupt) privatization to the Yeltsin's people themselves called it "shock therapy" for Russia. The pro-shock contingent in the US administration won out over saner people who advocated a more moderately paced transition-- with US support along the lines of what we did for Germany after WWII. I think it was one of the great US foreign policy disasters of recent times. You won't find anyone more anti-Soviet people than me.
Cui bono? I would suggest the eternal war party, including the CIA, military brass, and the MIC. If you recall, the end of communism in Russia was near-universally celebrated as "the end of the Cold War." And there was talk of a "peace dividend," that is, a big reduction in deficits by scaling back military spending because the face off with Russia was finally concluded. We had "won," and the Russian people thought they too had "won" because they were finally to live Peter the Great's dream of being part of Europe. This moment we are discussing is hardly the complete train of abuses and lies and sabotaging of the post Cold War era. It started with the first Bush and has carried through to this day. But major inflection point was Clinton's doing.
Some of the expelled Russian oligarchs were provided asylum in the US, according to something I read last night, but I haven't verified that.
I did question the US propaganda side of it. I didn't deny our interests in the HIID and the movements.
I must have missed you questioning the US propaganda. I suppose you mean "participation," and in the case I see that you did that.
I think the "the HIID and the movements" were very much
against the interests of the American people.
its pretty easy to tell that the Russians had just as much of an impact on Russia's economic struggles as any US involvement, because their problems lasted far longer than the 90s, and many of them exist today.
We can only discuss one instance at a time. I never said Russians had no role in the "shock therapy" plundering. I think that that was very much against the interests of the Russian people, who swung from elation at the opening to the West to demanding a strong arm to end the chaos, super-Weimar inflation, and looting. We can say that they got more than they bargained for. But I can also see why Putin was a hero to his people for stopping the bleeding. It is underestimated how that low point of catastrophe when Putin assumed power formed the Russian people's baseline for evaluating Putin's performance.
and fwiw, I don't think there is any way Russia was ever going to remove the vestiges of the USSR and come out with a great economy.
US actions or not. the dissolution of the USSR would have been 1000x worse than Covid for disrupting every part of the Russian bloc economy as it had to completely reorganize EVERYTHING if they didn't want to remain communist.
Russia is not a communist country now. Just in case you intended to say that. I don't think you did.
It would have been a hellva task. Prolly taken decades, but would likely be done by now. What was called the
Ostpolitik in West Germany and united Germany after would a better model. Of course we've blown up the pipelines now. But the war party (encompassing both US political parties) fought Ostpolitik tooth and nail. Maybe one harm or "benefit" of this present ruckus has been to divide the German people from the intention of repproachment with their historical Russian enemies. But maybe it is just a phase. Bringing Russia into the Western fold might well have separated them from China more than a little. And if it could be made to work, it would seem to pay dividends for both of in north Africa.
Finally, how perfect does Russia have to be if we welcomed Turkey into NATO?
Off the wall, but interesting to think about. At Yalta Churchill promised Russia a "much better warm weather port" after the war, perhaps with a guilty conscience for doing everything he could to stall in the West and let Russia handle the greatest burden of the war for years. Churchill suggested the Dardanelles! Stalin said, then you take Greece.