"What with Russian military and political structures being
dominated by anti-Western thinking - just like yours?"
- At that time after the end of the Cold War Russia just wanted to become a normal country like western countries, but the US wouldn't have it, they wanted to rule over and exploit.

"And you believe that they were really ready to be a member
of the alliance back in the 1990s?"
- Putin himself would probably say that he was too trusting and naive of the wests intentions at the time.

"Putin wants to revive Russian power. He needs an enemy to
rally national pride against and the US and NATO fill that
need."
- You have things back to front. Putin just wants security.
But Russia no longer cares about what the West says and does.

The West's sanctions and war have made Russia more prosperous.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/leadership/directors/eds23/brief/russia-was-classified-as-high-income-country

"In 2023, Russia’s Gross National Income per capita reached 14250 USD, and, consequently, Russia was classified as a high-income country for the first time since 2015. Real GDP per capita growth accounted for 3.6, while GNI per capita grew by 11.2% in 2023, clearly demonstrating successful macroeconomic policy conducted despite external pressure. Among key factors that contributed to economic growth in 2023 are trade (+6.8%), the financial sector (+8.7%), and construction (+6.6%). The most recent release of data from the International Comparison Program indicates that Russia became the 4th largest economy (GDP PPP) globally in 2021."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-NATO_relations

In 2000 Putin told George Robertson, the Secretary General of NATO at that time, that he wanted Russia to join NATO but would not like to go through the usual application process.[47]

In 2001, following the September 11 attacks against the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin reached out to President George W. Bush, the President of the United States at the time. This was the height of U.S.-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War. Russia even shared intelligence that they had with the United States, which proved vital to the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the Russia-NATO Summit at Pratica di Mare Air Base in Italy on 28 May 2002
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-NATO_relations#/media/File:Vladimir_Putin_28_May_2002-17.jpg

Venezuelan opposition leader thanks U.S. for recognizing him as presidential election's winner
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-recognizes-opposition-candidate-gonzalez-winner-venezuela-election-rcna164802

Haven't we heard this story before?
It's Juan Guaido all over again.
[Rolls eyes]

When will people understand that 'democracy' has become a tool of war to subvert the will of the people, to put puppet rulers in place to they can rob a nations wealth for the benefit of US companies and use deficit spending on useless US weapons, and force the countries into IMF debt and complete servitude with the debt placed upon the nations kids, and all the money flowing back to US bankers.

America just wants the oil.
It doesn't care about the people.

'Fight to the last Ukrainian'
- That's not what a friend does.

The good news is that everything America does these days seems to blow up in their faces.
And they're being destroyed by their own surrogate Israel.
I'm not sure America will allow Netanyahu to drag them into open conflict with Iran and Russia, who will likely assist in their defense if necessary.
All Americas talk of defending rules based order, human rights etc.
They've shown the world their hypocrisy in Gaza and the world is moving away from them because they went too far trying to steal Russias Central Bank funds and seizing the assets of individuals.
No countries are going to build factories in America, and they are also losing their chip-war.

America is on a road to total insignificance.

America can't even tell the truth about the Olympic medal tally.
What an arrogant egotistical miserable pathetic nation they are.