I don't get the western hateboner for Russia. And I don't mean post-soviet Russia, I mean Russia in general. It's been a thing for centuries lol. It kinda doesn't make sense to me-- I thought it was a religion thing, but western people glorify Greece (also orthodox Christian). Even when Russia was under Catherine the Great and shit, it seemed the rest of the west hated Russia,
Western people glorify Greece because Greece is the neighbour to Italy, and helped developed Western civilisation with Italy back in the Ancient and Classical world. Even a huge part of the founding of Rome myth is Aeneas who was a Trojan from the Fall of Troy.
From the perspective of geographical determinism, Russia is the black sheep of Europe. The least European country based on it's physiognomy of geographical determinism. It being the biggest country on Earth is no coincidence to the Russian identity and relations. It is the closest to the East and (obviously) a land power unlike the rest of Europe. Russia is a troonscontinental country and the largest, to put that in perspective, it extends from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan, it borders Poland, Norway and China and North Korea, which further separates its identity from the rest of Europe. It gets more apparent when you look a little into the ideas of Russkiy Mir (Russian World-Community-Region) and Eurocentrism.
The ideologies, especially the prevalence of autism syncretic and turd position ideologies, and the variety of anti-West and pro-West behaviours makes me believe Russia's natural state is a constant identity crisis due to it's geography and history, especially of being invaded from all angles as a land power with a huge lack of natural borders such as seas and mountain ranges like in Europe. Nations are inevitably occupied and vassalised but it matters by who. South Italy was occupied by the Byzantines and Aragonese but the social and cultural differences and exchange weren't as radical as the alien Mongol and Tatar occupation of Russians and other Rus peoples.
The identity crisis of if Russia is more Asian or European further distances itself from the rest of Europe, and that fits very well in the subconscious moral geography of the Western world. Europe is a relatively safe, peninsula of peninsulas with an ocean border of trade and colonisation to it's West and a single large land border at it's East where the Asian barbarians come from. Huns and Mongols being the biggest and well-known examples. The ultimate display of the 'Eastern invaders' idea would be the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, where Roman troops under General Aetius and Gothic troops under King Theodoric united in a joint effort to repel Attila the Hun. It was successful and Gaul was saved but King Theodoric died valiantly.
Alexander Dugin's books would definitely articulate this better. I've read a little bit of his stuff but not any books because currently poorfag.
This post is a bit convoluted but I'm just gonna post it anyway because I think it gets the point across. I hope I don't come off as a pseudo-intellectual wanker, I'm not an expert in this. It's just a part of what I understand from stuff I've heard and thought about. I'm looking to get some books in the future to properly learn.