I’ll tell you why Europe is hostile to Russia

First, World War II was more than 75 years ago. Vladimir Putin was born seven years after WWII ended and is now in his 70s. Gratitude to WWII veterans isn’t the same as gratitude to their kids. Their kids need to stand on their own merits — and the Russians don’t.

Russia did not make sacrifices other than in the Lord Fahquad sense. Stalin and Hitler were allies, tearing Poland apart between them

- and the Russians supplied their allies the Nazis with supplies, leading to the fall of France.

Pictured: Joseph Stalin making “sacrifices”

So why did these allies go to war with each other? Is it because Stalin realised his fellow dictator was a bad person and the Russians sacrificed to free others? Don’t be silly. They only fell out because the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. Defending yourself isn’t making a sacrifice. Defending yourself is pure self interest. Britain could have signed a peace treaty with Hitler easily enough — continuing the war through the Battle of Britain was a sacrifice. America was never actually threatened by the Nazis; every American GI who died fighting the Nazis was a sacrifice because they did not have to be there.

And then there’s the matter of what happened next. The Western Allies liberated e.g. France but did not make NATO into a puppet dictatorship. When the French largely withdrew from NATO in 1966 … nothing happened. Nato was a genuine military defence pact.

Meanwhile Russia kept the countries it “liberated” crushed under their boot heels (although they were an improvement over the Nazis). When Hungary tried to break away a bit in 1956 … the Russians invaded them and crushed them under their boot heels. When Czechoslovakia did something they didn’t like in 1968 the Soviets lead a Warsaw Pact invasion. The only military alliance to invade its own side.

So although the countries liberated by the Soviet Union might have been grateful to Russia for that in 1945 that gratitude was burned up and burned out by 45 years of Russia oppressing them and invading some of them to make an example out of them for others.

And since the Warsaw Pact broke apart those countries in Europe have both been learning the benefits of being in an alliance that doesn’t oppress them and grind them down. And they’ve been looking at how Russia treats its non-NATO neighbours. Occupying part of Moldova. Invading Georgia and supporting rebels repeatedly. Turning Belarus into a puppet state. Invading Ukraine twice.

If that’s how it treats its neighbours then of course those neighbours are hostile to it