towards Russia has often been legitimate and has on many occasions ultimately proved accurate, such as in the case of construction of Nord Stream, in particular in the context of the contemporary Russian policy In countries such as Germany, politicians who advocated closer trade relations with Russia while dismissing warnings from the new EU member states as Russophobic, have now come under intense public scrutiny, being mocked with the sarcastic derogatory labels of "Russlandverstehers" or "Putinverstehers". Although certain Western commentators implied in the past that official Western rhetoric and journalism about Russian actions abroad may have contributed to anti-Russian sentiment after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, besides disapproval of the Second Chechen War, Russian reaction to NATO expansion, the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, the 2014 annexation of Crimea, Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum, Russian interference in the 2016 United States election as well as several assassinations performed by Russian intelligence in a provocative manner on the territory of NATO members, many other researchers, in particular those living in countries formerly occupied by the Soviet Union and forced for decades into being part the Eastern Bloc, have consistently exposed the abuse of the "Russophobic" narrative to be a tactic used by Vladimir Putin to emphasize the belief that a besieged Russia faces an existential threat from the Western powers and must take drastic measures to ensure domestic stability including support for the ongoing war in Ukraine, and has been characterized by its critics as radical nationalism and neo-imperialism. Anti-Russian sentiment worsened altogether considerably after the Russian actions in Ukraine in 2014. Academic and former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul spoke about "combatting Russophobia", appealing to US officials and journalists to cease "demonizing" Russian people, criticizing propagation of stereotypes about Russians, Russian culture and Russian national proclivities. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian-speaking immigrants experienced harassment, open hostility and discrimination. History 18th and 19th centuries On 19 October 1797, the French Directory received a document from a Polish general, Michał Sokolnicki, entitled "Aperçu sur la Russie". This became known as the so-called "The Will of Peter the Great" and was first published in October 1812, during the Napoleonic wars, in Charles Louis-Lesur's much-read Des progrès de la puissance russe: this was at the behest of Napoleon I, who ordered a series of articles to be published showing that "Europe is inevitably in the process of