What is taboo in the West is to point out that, when they did say these things, Russian elites were not merely pretending to be worried about NATO as a front for their dastardly neo-imperialist designs.
I think it's taboo to point it out without caveating (as the article does) that this worry was "to a large extent irrational" (his words).
I think that many people also broadly object to using it to explain Russian behavior at all, or to suggesting that it wasn’t entirely irrational. But fair point.
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Notes -
I think it's taboo to point it out without caveating (as the article does) that this worry was "to a large extent irrational" (his words).
I think that many people also broadly object to using it to explain Russian behavior at all, or to suggesting that it wasn’t entirely irrational. But fair point.
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