Everything is as long as there is a common enemy...
Oh... I used to believe that too. Seriously. These De Gaulle expressions "Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok!" - sounds beautiful... I was a very young man when I realized that it was all bullshit. I was in Kosovo and saw the consequences of how the Belgian peacekeepers abandoned the Orthodox church, which they were supposed to protect from the Albanians... we are untermenshi for Europeans and will never be different. We are good for you only when we wave our tail and crawl in our legs, when we renounce our country, history and people. But as soon as at least one Russian speaks about his Homeland with pride, that his people have interests and that he is ready to defend them, he becomes an enemy, the devil, Hitler... well, what do you like there, mass rapes, all these stories.
No, you have never seen us as equals, do not start these discussions.