Having learned all about the Domino effect in high school history, with the US’s paranoid and probably unjustified fear that another form of government (ie. Communism) would grow in popularity and leave America without allies, I find it interesting that the current US administration seems so surprised that the Russian Leadership is a little cagey about George Bush going around actively encouraging all the countries surrounding Russia to adopt American style democracy (yes, there is a difference, and just because it’s American doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s any better than the other flavors of democracy out there) and to become American allies.
Really it’s just the same situation reversed, with overwhelming economic pressures being used to promote government change, instead of the militaristic approaches used in the 1960’s. As such it seems that the Russian response, while being perhaps a little paranoid (like the historical response by the US), is not exactly surprising or unreasonable.
It also seems a little two faced of the Americans to go around saying “We’re good friends with the Russians” on the one hand, while at the same time saying “We think that the Russians were bad in the past for the way they treated the Eastern European states which fell under their influence after WW2, and we think they still are bad for not admitting it”. It’s not as if you couldn’t make similar accusations regarding the USA’s treatment of a number of countries in South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.