*Permanently Deleted*

To be fair, up until the early 80's they were not a paper tiger and influenced many governments around the world to bend to their will and expansion of Soviet style "communism". It became an illusion that could no longer be upheld during the late 80's.

Sounds like the UK did something right

This does sound like it is in fact Russia that is paranoid, a lot of recent Russian behaviour makes sense if you think of them as a cornered and scared animal. Russia has somehow become convinced that the NATO powers want to destroy them when in reality I think NATO wants nothing more than to ignore Russia. Perhaps this actually is what Russia fears, not destruction but to be overlooked and the loss of its former position in the world, a position that was always largely an illusion.

So, what about Russia’s foreign agent registration laws? Paranoia and intellectual inferiority?

Not paranoid enough, probably.

pot calling kettle black...