Showing a bit of empathy, and looking at it from Russia’s POV, the 20th century wasn’t exactly kind to it. Admittedly, some self inflicted and some the result of expansionist neighbours. I do also wonder had Allied POW’s been treated like Soviet POW’s whether we would have more suspicions towards certain EU and/or NATO members.
IMHO, what we in the West forget is that certain countries have longer memories than the short termist West. I’m thinking of China in particular, and they don’t seem to forgive or forget as readily as the West. I would like to think that we have Russia and Sinophiles embedded in the Foreign Office and US/EU equivalents , but judging by recent UK foreign policies, I can only believe that the UK foreign policy is run by the editor of the Daily Mail.