Comment by Paradigma11
10 hours ago
For me the main difference is if the activity is clandestine and meant to deceive/hide the origin. Everybody tries to influence things their way. Doing it covertly is a hostile act. That does not mean that I would not condone hostile acts against my/our enemies but it is something take into account. And regarding your Russian examples, it showed for how long they have seen the west as enemies and conducted hostile acts.
They view certain components of "The West" as their enemy - indeed, the very organizations which conduct the same operations against the Russian people.
There are no enemies - they are competing parts - competing for popularity, resources, power. This makes it possible to negotiate. Enemies don't, but competitors are a lot more pragmatic.
Anglo-/Western and Russian governments have been strategic rivals for more than two centuries. Britain repeatedly sought to limit Russian expansion that threatened its own interests, such as routes to India, access to Caspian oil resources, etc.
See also, the Great Game and the Eastern Question.
They’re enemies because they want each others stuff. Russia has a LOT of stuff that the British would be quite happy to ‘manage’.
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Not a lot since WW2.
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Well, you could also look at the history and cold war and NATO and so on, but sure, the Orcs are just having inferiority complexes!
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Sure, but you have to admit that the reputation of Russians abroad is not THAT bad. They're seen as skilled at engineering and well-educated. I think Russia's future might be sunnier than many here let on - as long as they stop fighting their neighbours. By contrast, I think that the future for Israel is far grimmer. It's funny though that most of my relatives are in the intersection of these two groups: Russian Israelis - and I think my disgust towards Zionism is rooted partly in hearing them.