Russia could fully integrate into EU/NATO if it really wanted.

That's just not compatible with ambitions of its corrupt leaders who want to be a root-level player, not "one of NATO countries". And I'm not sure how legitimate is prioritization of wants of corrupt leaders over well-being of your compatriots.

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jacquesm an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Unsurprisingly, the same motivates the current crop of leadership in the US. They stopped teaching history in school I guess.

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RuslanL 24 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

They have asked to be a part of nato twice around 2000th and were both times rejected.

	▲	killerstorm 9 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		NATO is not something you can just apply to on a whim. The path for a membership was there: e.g. there were some joint exercises, etc. Obviously they also need political integration as well. Russia actually have been a member of Council of Europe (PACE, etc.) since 1996 but it was expelled in 2022. If they had a good record in Council of Europe they could really go for NATO membership eventually.