Luckily, Western politicians are too dumb, prideful and greedy to really do it.
They are, but it’s neither of this traits that decided, they simply cannot allow Russia get closer to Europe (and certainly not as close as to became member of NATO or EU) because it’s naturally born deal that would mean complete crash of post WW2 atlanticist hegemony projects. And even if, this was decided long ago, their huge fuckup was miscalculation about China which instead of going Gorbachev’s way and remain cheap labour neocolony, not only remained socialist but also became superpower and is challenging US hegemony by providing alternative for global south.
They are, but it’s neither of this traits that decided, they simply cannot allow Russia get closer to Europe (and certainly not as close as to became member of NATO or EU) because it’s naturally born deal that would mean complete crash of post WW2 atlanticist hegemony projects. And even if, this was decided long ago, their huge fuckup was miscalculation about China which instead of going Gorbachev’s way and remain cheap labour neocolony, not only remained socialist but also became superpower and is challenging US hegemony by providing alternative for global south.