I don’t have time today to fully dismantle this historical revisionist hogwash. Suffice it to say it is completely backwards. The US exported kleptocracy to Russia when the USSR disintegrated. We installed Boris Yeltsin as president. We even bragged about it on the cover of Time magazine. Goldman Sachs, the Harvard School and first and foremost the Clinton administration (full disclosure, I mostly supported Clinton at the time) helped specific Russian actors systematically loot Russia. The deal was clear: US banks and businesses get a cut of the booty. This plan worked great until Yeltsin was forced to resign, and the new Russian oligarchs installed by the US oligarchs miscalculated in supporting Putin as president.

Note: My critique of our US policy regarding Russia is in no way an endorsement of Vladimir Putin or his policies.