Rubbing Russia's nose in it.

I claim no expertise in foreign affairs; nor do I have any instant solutions on offer to avert the current prospect of war between Russia and Ukraine,  which could easily expand to involve the Western democracies.  But I do believe  the present dangerous situation is the result of a failure of diplomacy, not in ancient history  but in my lifetime, and a change of approach is needed.

 In defeating Nazism in the Second World War the United States suffered                       407 000 military casualties, the UK 383 000 military casualties and France 210 000 military casualties.*

 The losses incurred by the Soviet Union  in defeating Hitler were on an altogether different scale, estimated as between 8 and 11 millions.

The Soviet Government had every reason to be suspicious of their Western Allies.  After all, "we" had intervened, albeit sporadically, on the White Russian side in the Russian Civil War, (that, I emphasise, was before my lifetime) in which the Bolsheviks eventually prevailed.  And there was a strongly held view that the Western Allies may have  delayed their invasion of Normandy and the opening of the Western Front, to enable the Soviets armies to be weakened if not exhausted on the Eastern Front.

Be that as it may the Soviet Union's leaders and peoples were entitled to expect some sort of gratitude from their Western Allies, and considerable respect.

 Sadly, rather than moving along  in happy harmony the victorious allies grabbed the bits of Europe they had occupied.  The Soviets imposed their "system" on the East, like it or not, and the Western Allies imposed  "our "system on the West , assuming that they liked it, which by and large they did (though there were "iffy" moments in France and Italy and Greece.)

The "Cold War" continued for the next 35 yeas or so.  The NATO military alliance was set up to defend the interests of the West, the European Union established to develop our economies.

Around the end of the 1980s the Soviet political and economic systems collapsed.

Now was the time to show the proud Russian people and their government respect and offer constructive assistance if required.

Instead, not to put too fine a point on it, we gloated.

Hard line monetarist economists surged into the Soviet area and urged privatisation.  Kleptocracies developed and oligarchs found, and still find,  the London (Londongrad!) a convenient centre in which to launder and hoard their gotten gains.

 Former Soviet satellites were invited to join NATO, the very alliance set up to oppose their  Soviet masters (though there is some talk of a secret undertaking  that this would not happen.)

 Formers satellite economies  (largely at Margaret Thatcher's instigation) were welcomed into the European Union.

 We rubbed the Russian government's nose in it.

 Like previously weakened sates (eg Germany in the 1930s) they turned form tipping their toes into democracy to the election of a strong man.

 We now need tact and diplomacy to get us out of the predicament we have created.  This will involve showing Russia "some respect."

So far we have had the opposite. 

*This list is not meant to be comprehensive.  i know there were lots more countries involved and millions of civilian deaths.