Maybe Russia should just join NATO.
This would require Russia to change in a lot of ways from how Putin runs things, but who would that be bad for, really?
This would require Russia to change in a lot of ways from how Putin runs things, but who would that be bad for, really?
Putin asked Bill Clinton about this in 2000; was rebuffed.
"Keeping the US in, the Russia out and the Germany down"
This is misleading. Russia was admitted to the NATO Partnership for Peace, an onramp to membership, before Putin came to power. What Putin asked for, and was rebuffed on, was to skip the political, military compatibility, etc. readiness process then being required of aspiring members and be directly admitted.