They chose to believe in a liberal capitalist just-so story that more commerce with an unfree nation inevitably led to a burgeoning middle class demanding Western style democracy, and well, they fucked up real bad.
Same theory was applied to China, same theory failed.
Hence the European's sudden desire to expand the capacity for LNG offloading in European ports, they chose the faith based thinking of certain economists over cynical realism, and handed Russia a leash around their necks, who, in a move that shocked no-one who wasn't in German government in the last 15 years, used it to try to control them.
They chose to believe in a liberal capitalist just-so story that more commerce with an unfree nation inevitably led to a burgeoning middle class demanding Western style democracy, and well, they fucked up real bad.
Same theory was applied to China, same theory failed.
Hence the European's sudden desire to expand the capacity for LNG offloading in European ports, they chose the faith based thinking of certain economists over cynical realism, and handed Russia a leash around their necks, who, in a move that shocked no-one who wasn't in German government in the last 15 years, used it to try to control them.