Fair enough. This is actually a good call out. I tried to caveat with the "emotional but not rational". But perhaps that does not communicate well enough. The

Fair enough. This is actually a good call out. I tried to caveat with the "emotional but not rational". But perhaps that does not communicate well enough. The historical narrative that has been told people of my age for much of their formative years is the above. Basically, Russia has been a thorn in Western World's side since the communist revolution, with leaders like Stalin and followers. Prior to that, despite some really bad czars, the rest of the world doesn't care too much. So people like me, are sort of conditioned to have negative feelings about Russia on the world stage. That's the "emotional" part of it. The rational part of me is able see that there's a lot of interesting dynamics. That Russian people are just as much people as I am too. That my own country has a history for the last 100 years that when seen from the outside is also none too proud of a story to tell.