That difference causes an incredible amount of misunderstanding on both sides.
Russians have a marvelous sense of contradiction, absurdity. Biden doesn´t have it nor does anybody around him. Forget the Pentagon, FBI, CIA.
Often a national culture is best revealed in its humor. Here is a standard Russian joke:.
Two Russian generals are talking.
General 1: "I think to help our economy we should declare war on the United States."
General 2. "Are you crazy? Mostly likely, we would lose.".
General 1. "That is exactly my point. In World War II Japan lost the war. Today, Japan is the richest country in the Orient. Aslo in World War II, Germany lost. Today, Germany is the richest country in Europe."
General 2 thought a minute.:
"But what if we win?"
Here is an immodest proposal to end the Ukranian Crisis,
NATO immediately accepts Ukraine as a member.
The move would be accompanied by an offhand statement in the White House Rose Garden.
"Gosh, you would think that admitting Ukraine to NATO would not be in Russia´s security interests. President Putin,.however, worked feverishly night and day doing everything possible to achieve it.
And he did. He was totally successful. His wish came true - and now he is complaining. All I can say is that´s the dialectic or you, and those are the contradictions. In my youth I studied Hegel."
Russian people would understand that outcome immediately.
So would Russian generals who would put Putin out to pasture - exactly as they did Kruschev after the Cuban Missle Crisis.