General Discussion

Other than Gorbachev, the KGB and Boyar class (the Russian Mob/Oligarchy) has had as their primary goal to take down the more democratic West and "regain" the world position in culture and economics they always believed they were promised to hold - since the time the Muscovites agreed to join the Golden Horde because the Khans promised they would rule Europe once the Mongols finished with Southern Asia and the Ottomans.
Russia has had a long, frustrated case of petulant grudges against Europeans - and Americans - with 13th/14th century roots.
And even though Peter the Great tried to drag them into the enlightenment and clean up the extortion and slavery inherent in the system, the need among the Boyar class to lord over and show off the wealth of their own little corrupt mafias over the peasants, serfs, and other petty "nobles" or tradesmen in their "territories" continues today.