Hello from the 90s

Many people remember that in the 1990s on television often showed a smiling American president. Affectionate humor about Bill Clinton sounded like this: "Half the country attacked his president only because he turned out to be a real man." Ordinary Russian citizens indulged in euphoria about the country's soon entry into the EU. It is useful not to forget about this, because soon you will have to transmit these memories from the mouth to the mouth, as they secretly convey photos of women in short skirts in Iran until 1979.

In 2001–2006, in the specialty "International Relations" in one Russian university, I studied the following: in the 1990s, Boris Yeltsin entered into agreements on strategic partnership with the United States. But in fact, the United States did not want any strategic partnership, and very soon it became clear. Vladimir Putin figured out the true essence of this country. He and his ministers realized that America is actually not a partner for us, but an opponent for the spheres of influence, since the United States "declared the entire planet a zone of its geopolitical interests" (a quote from one of the teachers; it had a very rolled bass, and this phrase still resonates in my head). So, we taught, Vladimir Putin does everything to strengthen the military and diplomatic power of Russia, because the United States did not leave him another way out of his hostility.

Everyone is suitable for friends of Russia except the United States, and especially the enemies of the United States

"We opened ourselves with the West with all our Russian soul, and he betrayed us - the expansion of NATO to the east continued." In 2003, there was a Franco-German-Russian memorandum of a protest about the US invasion of Iraq, which was studied in detail at our university in detail: Russia, they say, will help Europe withstand the US in establishing hegemony on the planet. The optimistic title in one newspaper of the early 2000s reported: "Peter the first cut through the window to Europe, and Vladimir Putin opened the door." But since Putin opened the door not only to Europe, but drove on a visit to North Korea, to visit Venezuela and so on, soon the “modern foreign policy of the Russian Federation” became easier to be called: “Multipolarity”. The need for such visits was justified in the "foreign policy concept", of course, by the fact that Putin has no other choice but to look for friends.

Everyone is suitable for friends except the United States, and especially the enemies of the United States. Say, we are trembling creature or have the right? So, in the dry remnant, according to the official version, the United States treacherously betrayed democratic Russia and did not leave Putin other options except for response unfriendliness (and Russia wanted peace). This explains the annexation of Crimea, where the Americans wanted to arrange military bases. If anyone forgot, then even earlier the Americans were going to arrange bases in Chechnya. Ten years ago, the townsfolk was also inspired by this: Putin could not release Chechnya, "the Americans would have come there." Probably, the Americans were convinced of the Chechens, and there was quiet grace.

It took me time to realize from the “knowledge” (my knowledge) (my quotes) (my quotes), it took time to realize the disappointing reality: the “strategic” partnership of the United States with what Russia became in the 1990s (and remains in the 21st century), could not be. Sowing the economic crisis, hyperinflation, the IMF loans disappearing in the sand (after all, a real strategic partnership implies a comparable weight of economies), criminal cases in the strategic nuclear industry in Russia are recalled. So, the United States allocated funds to stop dual nuclear reactors under an intergovernmental contract, but the money disappeared . The Minister of Atomic Industry became a defendant in the criminal case .

This is only one "Hello from the 90s." In the 1990s, through Russia, which opened its borders and really entered into agreements on strategic partnerships with the United States, international drug trafficking and weapons trading routes began to take place. Budget money was plundered, there was no justice in the country, even mafia authorities with international coverage of activities were released as incurably ill “ honest representatives of the Russian business world ”. Occasionally, the Swiss investigators appeared in Russia as part of international investigative instructions, investigating the laundering of money from the Russian budget, but left, not in the solo sipped - the documents they needed were not in Moscow, but in Nizhnevartovsk . And today, people from the red list of Interpol calmly walk around Moscow and declare (Putin allowed!) That all the accusations - because "the USA against us Russians." It turns out that he is, a potential strategic partner!

When today there is information that the bargaining for the opening of the US military bases on their territory began Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan again, I do not experience any patriotic indignation on this occasion ("Ah, they are selected for us!"). These countries and Afghanistan - as Russia with Ukraine, there is no border. And drugs come from there. Then they go to Russia. Russia has become one of the most corrupt and mafia countries, which, moreover, is not a shame to complain that everyone envies it and everyone offends it. Russia is a country that does not fulfill international investigative instructions, intergovernmental agreements, but mutters everything: “We are honest holy Rus', and the USA wants wars,” where, of course, there is no democracy, but there is one Russophobia as the meaning of life.

Is it not funny yourself?

Anastasia Kirilenko - journalist