After the downfall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation was on its way to integrate itself into the Western community politically, economically and socially (by Western World I mean the so-called "First World" countries like Germany, UK, France, Italy, Japan, USA and so on). After Putin followed Jelzin, not much changed. Soon, powered by a high oil price and good relationships to Western investors and companies, Russia became more and more wealthy and overcame the transition crisis it suffered in the 90ies. Western Companies started to build more and more facilities in Russia. NATO even declared that Russia is no longer a Threat and Russia and NATO started even partnership projects.

But suddenly, somewhere after the financial crisis, Russia became hostile to the Western World again. It attacked Georgia, it attacked Ukraine, it started to support Anti-EU-parties in the EU and it started to do risky manaeuvers near NATO ships, spreading horrible lies about NATO, EU and the USA in TV and on the Internet and threatening the NATO.

Why this sudden turnaround? Soon after Russia began to stop integrating itself into Western community, the wealth stopped and Russia became to be more and more in a worse condition, economically speaking. When did this happen and what could be the reason(s) for the decisions behind Russias actions? Was ist the Financial (Subprime) Crisis? Was it Americas Intervention in Iraq (but this happened way too much earlier)?