Everyone in the west likes to forget that Russia opposed the bombing of Serbia in the 1990s, without a UN mandate (so much for NATO being only defensive!) Serbia just so happened to be an ally of Russian and Yugoslavia just so happened to be the last European socialist country after the breakup of the USSR.

Everyone in the west likes to forget that the US immediately recognized Kosovo as an independent nation after we bombed Yugoslavia out of existence (after destroying them economically).

Everyone in the west likes to forget that Russia opposed the "no fly zone" in Libya in the UN. The US/UK/France assured Russia that they were only going to for limited engagement to stop bloodshed. We all know how that worked out.

We've found out that Ukraine (Poroshenko), Germany (Merkel), and France (Hollande) all lead Russia on about implementing Minsk II to bring the 2014 Ukraine civil war to an end. We all know how that is working out.

Yet the west is "astounded" that Putin and Russia are not fully trusting of the west and Ukraine as negotiating partners trying to end the horrible war in Ukraine.

PS: Great link to the ProPublica article on the Afghan "Zero Units"