History has shown that the political elites in most, if not all, countries have the aim of being on top of the power hierarchy, if they can't, for some reason, they at least want to be close to the ones on top. See the different alliances between small countries and greater powers. Bitsofnews.com Giving you the latest bits.
First of all I do think that Stephens is quite right in assuming that Putin want to restore the old Russian national pride, in doing so he is no different than, what you call, the "Western" Tribe.
The Western Tribe has no interest in the pride of any country except to the extent that it helps their tribal standing. So they'll fuck the US into the ground so long as they win from it.
