Memes

You are treating any distinction I make as if it is an attempt to portray europe as moral. It is not. europe has taken part in serious crimes and carries responsibility for them.

My point is that political systems are not identical. Europe’s structures are too often captured by interests and often fail, but they still allow for leadership changes, court rulings, investigations and public pressure. Even in eastern europe elections have been re-run and parties banned after proven foreign interference. These mechanisms are limited, but they exist. Russia removes them entirely.

Acknowledging this difference is not excusing western actions. It's also not claiming russia’s motives are justified. It's just recognising that foreign policy, internal structure and accountability aren't the same thing.

If your view is that any distinction is a double standard, then we are not working with the same categories, and there is no productive way to continue the comparison.

And back to the original theme - we don't want nor need war in europe, but russia (a fully captured state) seems hell bent on bringing it. I suppose that when it eventually falls, it will fall hard.