Yes, you do not serve any ideological dogma, and therefore are interesting to me. In my opinion, real freedom is just inner freedom, and not the opportunity to join any "sect".

By the way, I don't believe in communism either, but I'm very interested in this topic. And I too was expelled from the communist internet community as "reactionary" :)

I fully understand and share your idea of ​​the need to understand the motivation of the behavior of countries and individuals, as well as historical features. This is sorely lacking in the United States, which seems to consider it unnecessary to "sink" to "problems of aborigins" (for example, most American "experts on Russia" do not even know Russian).

As for my commentary on your article, in it I, being a Russian “paranoid”, would like to “cure myself”, having learned from you the reason why Russia today and tomorrow should not be afraid of the West, given the negative circumstances which you listed and an infinite number all what can be said on this subject. I understood that the answer is beyond the scope of the article, which is addressed to a Western reader, but I wanted to take the opportunity :)