1. Seriously? When was Europe threatened by Russia? In both WW wars they tried to abstain, seeing it mostly as a fight between capitalists. If anything, it was Europe invading Russia, by Napoleon and Hitler, not the other way around. 2. Russia already has the largest territory on Earth, why would they need more?
1. That was then and this is now. To make matters worse, the West insists in making it feel more foe than the other way around. The silly slight of not inviting it to the recent gathering of heads of state attending the events in France regarding WW2 could have been avoided; yes, it wasn't on the "beaches" but neither was France, other than geographically. It, the brave populace - apart from the Resistance - was more interested in drawing up little lists of women whose heads they could shave when it was safe. Meanwhile, Russia lost millions of people. We talk about The Holocaust Six Million endlessly, but seldom give a shit about those many, many more millions who died in Russia at the same hands.
2. Because most of it is empty tundra. Europe is a ready-made industrialised and productive continent - a prize. And think of all those villas in Marbella and Portofino, Capri and the Côte d'Azur! Wanna dacha in a frozen forest instead?
For the Ruskies, the southern shores of France were already prized possessions of the nobility; they made the place, along with some English and a few lost Americans who slipped in from Paris when not writing the next biggest novel.
Rob
