Over the past three decades, the transatlantic community has paid much more attention to Russia than to anyone else. Far too much. The world does not revolve around Russia, and we should finally stop acting as if Russia was the centre of the universe

Let's start with basic rhetoric. Why is it always NATO that barks at the Russian door, but never Russia barking at the NATO door? Why is it us who failed to build a common European house with Russia, but not Russia who failed to build a common house with us?

Why is it always the West that should reset its relations with Russia, but never Russia that should reset its relations with the West? Why is it always the West that must be realistic with Russia, but Russia does not have to be realistic with the West?

Finally, why these are always Ukrainian attacks on Russia that "provoke retaliation", but the Russian attacks on Ukraine somehow shall never entail any retaliation from the Ukrainian side? Even such trivial vocabulary betrays our thinking of Russia as something superior

Let's move further. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the transatlantic community has repeatedly attempted to engage Russia

NATO invited Russia to its Partnership for Peace programme - Russia was, in fact, the first post-Soviet country to join the club, even before Ukraine did the same

The EU went along the same lines. The first ever adopted EU common strategy was the strategy towards Russia. The EU agreed to create Four Common Spaces with Russia, as Russia refused to cooperate with the EU within the EU's Neighbourhood Policy, considering itself "more equal"

The West has never shied away from cooperation with Russia. But Russia has always believed that it somehow deserves a special treatment. And finally, over all these years, we have implicitly agreed that Russia indeed deserves such a special treatment

Universities have had Russian and post-Soviet departments, research institutes - Russian and Eurasian programmes. Russia has always been the centre of our attention, and the rest of the region has barely been a periphery

The successive NATO Secretary Generals were always checked against their stance on Russia, in order not to upset the Russian leadership. But why haven't we demanded from Russia that the people expressing anti-NATO views do not hold governmental positions?

There has been constant talk of the need to understand the Russians, but rarely of the need to understand the other countries in the region. That's why the Western decision-makers and their advisors have always been surprised - in 2004, 2014, and finally in 2022

And despite this perennial need to understand Russia and the Russians, the Western analysts and scholars have always struggled with it. Many of them have eventually lost any remnants of objectivity

It is high time we stop treating Russia as the centre of the universe. Russia has written itself out of the civilised world and has placed itself on the margins. We do not need to drag it back against its will

There is no need to always come up with the eternal question of what the Russians would do about sth. If we cannot build a peaceful Europe with Russia, let us build it without Russia, and keep it at bay. No, it is not anti-Russian. Russia is not an obligatory point of reference

Russia has little to offer today. It has become a destructive power, an irritating one, with a lot of potential to do harm. But it is now incapable of building constructively, working in a cooperative environment and following a win-win approach in its relations with the West

Russia has claimed special status for decades, and we let them enjoy it despite not deserving it. And this is what ultimately led Russia down the path of war. Time to draw conclusions [END]