There's no democratic and prosperous country that isn't aligned with the USA somehow.
Russia had the chance to become a country like that in the 90s, but they chose to have another tsar instead.
There was a real possibility that Russia could have joined Europe, but something got broken along the way.
I'm not sure that USA is really a strong ally of Europe. It's something in-between. US has its own interests before all.
They would lend us (Europe) money and sell us weapons in case we go to war, but a friend giving you a loan and making profit out of you isn't really that great friend.
The USA is not perfect, but there isn't anyone else out there.
Beggars can't be choosers. Especially after European NATO members underinvested in defence for decades and refused to see Russia as a threat that it is.
Not that long ago France even attempted to sell them aircraft carriers.
Not very great choices. Also only Russia and China would be safe for people like Snowden or Assange.
Add "NATO", "Russophobia", "Nazis", "Western" and other keywords in the soup and you have the perfect anti-Western speech.
It's not even a Western tool.
Sanctions are a tool to refuse to trade with opponent regimes, and it works both ways (China has sanctions on the West too, for example on semiconductors. Russia has sanctions too against the West).
It's not perfect, and it has side-effects, but overall it deters other countries / terrorist organizations to follow the same path of taking an hostile posture against you.
If you let people go around sanctions, then becoming hostile will simply have no consequences.
If there are no consequences to actions, and there is a big prize to win, then the politics will do it, no matter what.
Interesting quote:
> In April 2023, the Australian government released their 2023 national review where it is outright stated that the age of American unipolarity and primacy in the Indo- Pacific is effectively over, paving way to great power competition and a more fractious world order.
It's new to me that Australia is known to spread Russo-Chinese propaganda either.