My understanding is that it was Cheney that wanted to kick them to the curb after the Soviet collapse. He wanted a single super power. The result of that is the current Putin kleptocracy.

At the same time, a lot of the good things we've heard about Russia turned out to be about Ukraine. On the other hand Russia is the biggest nation in the world because it is genocidally aggressive. Nah, it seems like Russians are a pain in the world's butt and have been for a long time. They are not nice people.