After Trump rose to prominence, there became a narrative that neoliberals and neocons were and had long been anti-Putin purists, and it was never true. For the first several years of Putin's reign, both were largely indifferent or viewed him as a solid Russian nationalist but a guy they could play ball with.
By 2008, it was pretty well known that Putin was no Boys Scout. However, between then and 2014, neoliberals in the United States and Western Europe did some big things that were wildly pro-Putin.
First, though NATO was expanding, the military capabilities of NATO were dramatically reduced. Remember that in 2013, the US Army didn't have a single tank in Europe, and of course, we killed a missile defense program in the Czech Republic. That was coupled with big defense cuts in general in most NATO countries. Very pro-Putin move.
Second, Western European neoliberals went full swing (or full retard) on green energy at this time. They virtue signaled about their greenness with solar and wind power, but in the background they were "making it work" with huge imports of Russian oil and gas. (In other words, to a great extent, it was a scam.) Another very pro-Putin move. In fact, it's not crazy to say the invasion of Ukraine is bankrolled with German money given away because of green energy policy.
Third, while we condemned and the Crimean invasion and made some small though no where near proportional reversals in the military drawdowns, we couldn't do a very big response because while Crimea was going to hell, we were diplomatically leaning on Russia to help facilitate the Iran nuclear deal. It's hard to kick a guy's *** and lick his nuts at the same time, but that's what we were doing in '14 and '15.
And of course, early in Biden's presidency, he green-lit Nord Stream 2. Another very pro-Putin move.
So when we hear about Republican or Trump softness on Putin, always remember that the criticism is coming from people who enabled the very crisis that's occurring.
Last edited: Apr 15, 2022