Russia was not accepted to integrate with EU. The position of EU pretty much being "you stay here and sell us oil while we integrate all your new neighbours".

Russia was not accepted to integrate with EU. The position of EU pretty much being "you stay here and sell us oil while we integrate all your new neighbours". There's a famous long read about it (you can use machine translation) https://sputnikipogrom.com/politics/30301/story-of-faded-love/ https://sputnikipogrom.com/politics/30301/story-of-faded-lov...