I actually wanted to reference Chuck Palagniuk with his "Judgment Day", same idea, but couldn't structurally find a great place in the text to fit it. Grew tired by that time, too. It is lengthy and choke-full of facts and thoughts as is.

I like how George Carlin expressed himself concerning the matter. "There doesn't have to be a formal conspiracy if there's a [unison?] of interest". But he meant international economy in the capitalist framework.

Russia is different though, so I do disagree that they are "all friends". Russia is expansionist, expansionist, expansionist, ~700 years thoughout its history, it gluttoned a chunk of the East starting out no larger that modern Poland (or about the same size). Bitten off a bit of Finland and, recently, Georgia, consumed Chechnia, now gnaws at Ukraine. The EU do not seem to play this "utilize the plebs" game, for example. Not anymore. Not after the horrors of WWII.