I appreciate your response even if I don’t agree with it.
> Professionals like Kozyrev, who was the minister or foreign affairs of the Russian Federation (1990-1996) and in charge of rebuilding RF's international relations after the disintegration of the USSR, have openly called this bullshit that only manipulated idiots believe, because the "security goals" argument makes no sense whatsoever if you spend more than 10 seconds on it.
Obviously, it’s not just “manipulated idiots” that believe the realpolitik analysis of the causes of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
I had not read Kozyrev but took a look at this article [0] of his from 1995. I think his view is more nuanced than you present here and by the end of the article you can even see his apprehension about how NATO is acting as though Russia is strictly an opponent and not a potential ally. He discusses how this is inciting nationalism in Russia. The argument about free security only makes sense if Russia perceives itself to be within the fold of NATO, which as early as 1995, ostensibly pro-NATO Russians could see they were not.
> Professionals like Kozyrev, who was the minister or foreign affairs of the Russian Federation (1990-1996) and in charge of rebuilding RF's international relations after the disintegration of the USSR, have openly called this bullshit that only manipulated idiots believe, because the "security goals" argument makes no sense whatsoever if you spend more than 10 seconds on it.
Obviously, it’s not just “manipulated idiots” that believe the realpolitik analysis of the causes of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
I had not read Kozyrev but took a look at this article [0] of his from 1995. I think his view is more nuanced than you present here and by the end of the article you can even see his apprehension about how NATO is acting as though Russia is strictly an opponent and not a potential ally. He discusses how this is inciting nationalism in Russia. The argument about free security only makes sense if Russia perceives itself to be within the fold of NATO, which as early as 1995, ostensibly pro-NATO Russians could see they were not.
[0] https://www.jstor.org/stable/e2bc4375-e9ea-3c1f-99f6-d75004d...