© Reuters / Stevo VasiljevicA billboard showing US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen in Montenegro on November 16, 2016.
For decades, Russia's self-described "liberals" and "democrats" have touted the American political system as one their country should emulate. They have had abundant encouragement in this aspiration over the years from legions of American crusaders, who in the 1990s launched a large-scale, deeply intrusive, and ill-destined campaign to transform post-Communist Russia into a replica of American "democratic capitalism." (See my book
Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia.) Some Russian liberals even favored NATO's eastward expansion when it began in the late 1990s on the grounds that it would bring democratic values closer to Russia and protect their own political fortunes at home.
Their many opponents on Russia's political spectrum, self-described "patriotic nationalists," have insisted that the country must look instead to its own historical traditions for its future development and, still more, that
American democracy was not a system to be so uncritically emulated. Not infrequently, they characterize Russia's democrats as "fifth columnists" whose primary loyalties are to the West, not their own country. Understandably, it is a highly fraught political debate and both sides have supporters in high places, from the Kremlin and other government offices to military and security agencies, as well as devout media outlets.
Comment: Below are just some of the more recent antagonistic moves by the West near Russia's borders: