I ask because I recall seeing a clip of Putin that was from a fair number of years back where I got the impression he was eager for Russia to be considered a Western country.

What’s the opinion of Russians towards Westerners today vs how it was before the SMO? On social media, it’s the easiest thing in the world to find some of the most caustic racism being levied towards Russians, and mass media is only ‘gentle’ when you look at American and British media, I’ve seen subtitled clips of news shows in Germany and France and there’s some of the most heinous, flat out Nazi rhetoric I’ve ever seen.