[1rudeboy]

Sorry, don't buy it for a second. This crap, particularly with regard to Russia, did not start in 1998.

[Mentallo]

Sorry, don't buy it for a second. This crap, particularly with regard to Russia, did not start in 1998. Yes, it did. Yeltsin was set aside because of Kosovo and it aggrieved the Russians and made them wary of the new NATO that changed its charter to allow it to go to war even though it was not attacked - in other words - a new NATO charter that allows it to wage offensive war. In any case, the Russians practice the reciprocity rule of diplomatic relations. If Power A gets to do it then Power B gets to do an equal and equivalent (in their eyes) back until it thinks it found parity. Sometimes in Diplo-speak it is called "tit for tat".