It’s more that after the fall of the USSR, the RF tried to cozy up to the west, was denied, and had a large nationalist movement to kick out the foreign plunderers. This started a large chain of NATO expansion, which has been directed to threaten Russia into opening up its capital markets back up for western imperialism. Many of the former SFSRs and SSRs had strong nationalist movements prior to the dissolution of the USSR, and these carried over into far-right movements such as in Estonia, allowing rapid NATO expansion.
It’s less about Russia not wanting “independence” from its neighbors, and more Russia not wanting to be encircled by the main imperialist army on the planet. The dissolution of the USSR wasn’t a “turn evil” button, it dramatically altered capital relations and how the west deals with Russia. It’s also why Russia has strong ties to socialist states despite being capitalist, it’s forced into alignment with them due to being strongarmed by the west, same as Iran, or even Brazil to an extent.
It’s more that after the fall of the USSR, the RF tried to cozy up to the west, was denied, and had a large nationalist movement to kick out the foreign plunderers. This started a large chain of NATO expansion, which has been directed to threaten Russia into opening up its capital markets back up for western imperialism. Many of the former SFSRs and SSRs had strong nationalist movements prior to the dissolution of the USSR, and these carried over into far-right movements such as in Estonia, allowing rapid NATO expansion.
It’s less about Russia not wanting “independence” from its neighbors, and more Russia not wanting to be encircled by the main imperialist army on the planet. The dissolution of the USSR wasn’t a “turn evil” button, it dramatically altered capital relations and how the west deals with Russia. It’s also why Russia has strong ties to socialist states despite being capitalist, it’s forced into alignment with them due to being strongarmed by the west, same as Iran, or even Brazil to an extent.