Not relevant to the point - "I gave my item to my former friend Paul". For some reason or for some other, it happens.

And miscalculations in game theory happen ("he wouldn't, given...").

The something was the collapse of the USSR, right? "The end of history" etc.

Case in point: a naive belief in "high moral". Bad guy (Ru) attacks good guy - bad, punish, cancel. When good guy (US) attacks bad guy - that's different, whataboutism etc. Such POV falls apart when good guy (US) attacks another good guy (EU), and while you may chose to ignore such possibility, European leaders don't (a rare case of competence on their side).