That was exactly my point too.
In the '90s simple people believed in a quick change (how naive) and the party members were ready to overtake and split between them resources, factories etc etc. Russia was no different than the wild capitalism we all had, even worse if you ask me because they never planned to "Westernise".

It’s Gazprom Germania taking the hit, not the russkies.

I think that at the end of the Cold War everybody, well Germany decided to give Russia the benefit of the doubt.

So if Gazprom Germany is not buying Russian gas to sell to Germany, etc. then from whom?

It was worse, because unlike Ukraine it had wars and terrorist attacs.

Of course you are right. Because the collapse of the Soviet Union wasn't smooth at all and they tried to maintain power ever since. If I had to make a list with all those conflicts that would be quite long. But for some reasons they were still given a lot of credit, apparently.

I've mentioned this before, that by benefit of the doubt were really talking about the Wests human rights groups, etc, etc being unable to prosecute past Soviet crimes and misdemeanors in court in Russia, as Russia blocked any such efforts. It certainly wasn't going to extradite anyone, either.

Unlike prosecuting the DDR's East Germany's crimes and misdemeanors where the perpetrators were 'brought to book'.

Was an economy in freefall? was corrupt? It’s not a dis if you are stating the facts

No more than Russia.
Probably much, much less. On top of endemic corruption and free fall of living standards, Russia did a lot of wars too. Facts, dear.

So the West should have respected Russia more because of what, exactly?

I don't know what you are on about. Seems like I triggered some defensive attitude here - when this was not even remotely my point. But ask yourself why the Balts made it into NATO by the late 90s, and others did not.

Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO on 29 March 2004 or did you mean other Balts?
Did you mean these? Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland on 12 March 1999 became the first former members of the Warsaw Pact to join NATO.

Bulgaria, Estonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia also joined NATO on 29 March 2004.

My bad. 2004 then. Point is the same.

• Bosnia and Herzegovina was invited to join the Membership Action Plan (MAP) in April 2010.
• At the 2008 Bucharest Summit, the Allies agreed that Georgia and Ukraine will become members of NATO in future.
• On 18 May 2022, the Finnish and Swedish ambassadors to NATO simultaneously conveyed the intent of their respective countries to join the Alliance by submitting official letters of application to NATO.

And?

My point was that Ukraine in the 90s was a mess and the claim that them having kept nuclear weapons equals no war with Russia is questionable.

Your post "But ask yourself why the Balts made it into NATO by the late 90s, and others did not."

I was trying to figure out what your point was.

Fair enough. My point goes back a few pages, and I felt Greenmount and TinyK were doing a bit of a what-about thing.

Defensive? You were talking about Ukraine and Russia, right??? (btw, there are many causes for not making it to Nato or whatever quicker, one of them being Russia's opposition, pro-Russia or at least "let's not upset Russia"governments etc etc)
You didn't trigger anything as I look at the present and I am happy that my country is in Nato today, fine, 5 years later than three others. You have to justify your assessment (IMHO) and I happen to disagree with it. I was bored about the "should have respected Russia" blah blah, I read it here too many times. Russia was in no better shape than Ukraine back in the '90s, that was my point. And they (UA) should have kept their nuclear weapons too.
Anyway, I am happy to agree to disagree in regards with the "Russia didn't receive respect" thing, they did but they didn't reciprocate.

Three EU leaders: Macron, Scholz and Draghi met Zelenskiy in Kiev and pledge support for Ukraine's EU bid.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2...bound-for-kyiv

https://www.politico.eu/article/macr...nskyy-ukraine/

Did they try to pressure Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia or to reach ceasefire deal as the sanctions will eventually hurt the economy of France, Germany and Italy?

https://news.yahoo.com/frances-macro...185015694.html

https://news.yahoo.com/russian-sanct...081350950.html

Well Selensky didn´t look very happy and if you look read between the lines of all the political flim flammery, you could get that impression.
Especially since they have offered a EU membership to Ukraine and indeed Moldovia to boot.
Great, two more economical basket cases in the EU.

By the way, the Reds have cut most of the supply of gas to the EU, Habeck is calling out for people to save gas and that homes don´t have to be at 21°. 18° is enough. Perhaps we will see rationing by the time winter comes round again.

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Back in Bavaria, god´s own belly button.

Quite likely in some form. This is going to be more disruptive than just turning down the living room a few degrees, I am afraid. The funny thing is that even with a colder hiome, your bill will be much higher. I can hear the screaming for economic support packages already.