Russia has openly offered itself to the West since the collapse of the USSR, and with just a little more feeling for its interests,
which the West could then quite painlessly incorporate with its power its strategic interests in a broader sense - everything
could have been different.
Yeah, a little more feeling for its interest - just to unfair,aly preserve its impact on the rest of the post-soviet countries. Let them be independent, but let it be pretended, not real. And we will palm off our pro-russian politicians, influence public sentiment, and split the country from within. Of course, everything could have been different. Talk about everything being different with Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and many other countries.