There are leashes everywhere. People just choose the one with the strings attached that they can tolerate. Personally I'd like to see Russia transition to a socialist country to counteract the radical capitalism of the west. Instead it has turned into a raging kleptocracy with the help of the US, an end stage capitalism oligarchy. They just needed to sit and wait for the US to hang themselves, but the kleptocrants couldn't live with the idea of losing the monopoly of EU gas supply...