> But we, in the West anc countries aligned with the West fail to understand their motives. It's dangerous to assume this only holds true for one side, imho it

> But we, in the West anc countries aligned with the West fail to understand their motives. It's dangerous to assume this only holds true for one side, imho it's much more likely all the involved players think like that and act accordingly. Case in point: Many Russian people also don't understand "Western motives" and they actually feel backstabbed due to cultural differences leading to, rather massive, geopolitical misunderstandings like that whole "No NATO Eastward Expansion" promise during German reunification talks. [0] While Russians think "A word is a word", most Western responses to this pretty much boil down to a lawyered "nothing was ever ratified" response, which might be formally correct but is the diplomatic equivalent of flipping somebody off you just scammed. There are so many barriers at work here, not just in terms of language, but also the cultural context, also ain't helping that pretty much everybody is running communication and information interference, so finding common ground is actively fought against. [0]http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nato-s-eastward-expansion-did-the-west-break-its-promise-to-moscow-a-663315.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nato-s-eastward-ex...