The hypothesis that Russia would benefit from tensions with Western Europe because it would be able to sell more weapons seems far fetched. Sell more weapons to whom? The Serbs? Oh sure, the Serbs are so loaded with cash to invest in missiles that that their buying more weapons could easily make up for lost energy & metal revenues. The Russian military could buy more weapons, yes, but that's diverting state funds from investments in the economy, the infrastructure, etc. to the military - and it's already the case - without tensions (war) in Europe.
Now how would Washington benefit from chaos?
Of course Russia has nothing to gain from tensions with western Europe. But there are certain elements of the ruling elite that would undoubtedly prosper in the case of a new cold war. The rulers of the US invented both the "War on Drugs" and the "War on Terror" for that purpose. Wait this is important. Someone is wrong on the Internet.
