For real! Hell, they even openly tried to fucking join NATO at one point. They tried going capitalist as fuck really fast to get the west to back the fuck off of the whole "most evil nation that is always trying to end the world because communism". But it wasn't going to ever matter and were still always painted as being a KGB police dictatorship, even though the west was treating other nations with much more literal versions of that shit as being our best friends in "freedom". NATO existing after the USSR and now even expanding to literally non-North Atlantic regions at this point should be so fucking obvious to it being anything other than a mob. Everything "aggressive" being done by Russia is the result of NATO members (especially the US and UK but not limited to them) never having any plans to let Russia be treated as equal.

And the idea that China is basically pulling an op on making Russia bow to them is beyond some of the dumbest lib (both conservative and progressive)/reactionary shit. They were both being treated in every bad-faith ways possible and constantly being loudly pushed as being "evil" no matter what. Both are treated as trying to push the world into another war anytime they do big military training exercises (both joint and just within their branches internally). While the US and NATO are constantly rolling up on their borders and making sure to do similar or larger exercises and always seen as somehow not aggressive/pushing for war.