Why Does The West Not Keep Russia In Good Mood?

New Delhi, July 18 (TNA) I do not understand why the West can not keep Russia in a good mood. There are no major irritants, bedevilling their relations. If only the West would not insist on expanding Nato towards the east, the West could solve most of their problems with Moscow.

Nato's eastward expansion has been a serious bone of contention. Europe could stop calling out Moscow on the lack of democracy, human rights etc. as such knee jerk reactions strengthen the grip of anti-Western authoritarian forces over Moscow.

One of the reasons why a dictator like Vladimir Putin has been a political cat with more than nine lives in Russian politics is the West's habitual offence of never ending attacks on him.

By contrast, if the West would shed negative rhetoric and become a little warm-hearted towards Moscow, Vladimir Putin and the likes of him would have difficulty surviving for a long time. Not only that, even an event like the annexation of Crimea would become unimaginable.

That is to say Western diplomacy has been botched up in respect to Moscow. The West will do well to redraft their attitude towards Russia in light of the great change in world affairs in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991. It is never too late to mend.

(The writer is a political commentator. He retired from the South Asia Institute of the Heidelberg University)