Seems like Russia and all countries that share similar cultures would be allies against China, with her 1.5 billion people . . . ???
For a throrough review of the intellectual influence that enlightenment thinkers had on America, check out C. Bradley Thompson's America's Revolutionary Mind.
https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/fall-2020/americas-revolut...
My guess is because Russia is not, and never has been a democratic country, and perhaps there are many nuanced conflicts regarding that difference that im not educated enough to understand or find.
So to sum it up, my point is, when it comes forming alliances, US is willing to overlook democracy. I don't know why you're bringing up invasion.
Also, as an aside, if a country is not democratic, that doesn't give US right to invade it and you don't get to justify it.
> if a country is not democratic, that doesn't give US right to invade it and you don't get to justify it
You made up something here, that nobody disputes, attributed to an unnamed set of opponents, and denied it. This is messed up. You should not be doing that in a reasonable discussion.
That was literally my point. GP said one reason Russia and US might not be allies is because of democracy, when clearly that hasn't stopped US from being allies before.
>You made up something here
GP brought up the topic of invasion, I didn't.
No, that's not what GP said. They said "because of democracy, and ...". So what are you arguing?
> GP brought up the topic of invasion, I didn't.
But you brought up a statement, that implied, that somebody justified invasions based on lack of democracy.
>US has shown time and time again that democracy only matters when it suits them. US is an ally of Saudi and a lot of monarchies in Middle East; Saudi, Qatar, UAE and Kuwait. US also overthrew a democratically elected govt. in Iran for a "friendlier" Shah. You also have Operation Candor.
No, they do not. Culturally Russia has always ping ponged back and forth between seeing itself as European and not European. Currently Russia is on the "we're distinct from Europe and have our own unique and proud history" side of that equation. If you want more on this (extremely complicated) subject, read into the various Tsars that attempted to "modernize" and Europeanize Russia, such as Peter the Great. The backlash after his death towards his European preferences says a lot.
Religiously Russia is an Orthodox country, and it split off from Europe's Catholicism nearly a 1000 years ago. This split was both religious and political, aligning roughly (very roughly) with the divisions of the Roman empire into East and West. The Eastern (Orthodox) branch was originally centered in Constantinople (modern Istanbul), which even today we'd identify as a distinctly Eastern city. That alone should tell you why Russia sees itself as distinct from the rest of Europe.
Meanwhile the rest of Europe is either Catholic or Protestant, which itself split off from Catholicism half a millennium after Orthodoxy did. They're just not that close religiously.
> Seems like Russia and all countries that share similar cultures would be allies against China, with her 1.5 billion people . . . ???
Because international diplomacy and conflict isn't really as simple as pointing at borders and population counts. Yes, there has been some conflict between Russia and China, but by and large their population centers are a long, long way away from each other. There's a reason why Russia has fought basically three wars with China and dozens with Sweden alone; geography.
Meanwhile there are historical and personal reasons for Russia to turn West and specifically to Ukraine. Russia has a very, very long history in attempting to seize and hold Ukraine, as it's alternated back and forth between being a Russian owned territory and not. Take a look at the Kievan Rus, the ancestor state to both Russia and Ukraine, and coincidentally where Russia converted to Orthodox Christianity.
from a religious point of view, are you suggesting that Eastern Orthodox Christianity is similar to the hodgepodge of various Christian sects in the States?
Catholic and Orthodox are two sides of the same coin, this is why I bring it up. I'm also aware that the US has a lot of various Orthodox sects as well, including Russian.
Eastern Catholics are Roman (but not Latin-Rite) Catholics. And, yes, the US has a lot of Catholics.
> Catholic and Orthodox are two sides of the same coin
From the perspective of some Protestants, maybe, though from the Orthodox perspective one might see the two sides of the Catholic/Protestant schism as much closer than the Catholic side of that schism is to the Orthodox side of the East/West schism.
Overtly fascist