I do think the reasons for Russian imperialism need to be taken into account. As Catherine the Great said, "I can only seem to stabilize my borders by expanding them." The fact is, it's a rough neighborhood and if the Ukrainians, Chinese, Khazakis' whoever, can push them off the top of the pile, so be it.
One big difference between Europe and Asia that doesn't seem to get much mention, probably because it is so obvious, is that Europe has a lot of natural geographic boundaries, mountains, rivers, forests, peninsulas, islands, etc, so it was much easier for peoples to defend particular areas and develop cultures around the geography. While in much of Asia, especially central, it is much more wide open steppes, plains, etc and so much less easily defended and consequently the cultures had to adapt differently.
That people then assign qualities to these characteristics and judge each other according to their own situations is also a natural human adaptation, but if we want to see the bigger picture, we have to be willing to look outside the boxes and categories, even if our tribal inclination is otherwise.
Keep in mind it wasn't like the Great Game was played out in Ireland and Scotland, rather than Crimea and Afghanistan, or that Chinese junks sailed up the Thames and demanded Londoners use more opium.
So it is a matter of push and push back.
What if the Russians were running IRA training camps in northern Ireland and giving them lots of weapons? It's not like the Irish and Scots have any more historical reason to like the English, than the Ukrainians, Poles, etc have for liking the Russians.
As for the US Empire, it does seem Japan, South Korea and Australia consider themselves as much a part of it as the Europeans.
As for the Middle East, here is someone who knows more than I;
https://www.indianpunchline.com/free-will-trumps-determinism-in-gulf-politics/
To add one point, emphasis really, to my previous post, if humanity is to see geopolitics as more of an ecosystem, as opposed to assuming it can function as some global organism, that really does go all the way into the difference between pantheism and monotheism. Remember democracy and republicanism originated in pantheistic cultures, the family as godhead and the Romans adopted a monotheistic sect as their state religion at the time the Empire was first coalescing out of the ashes of the Republic. Basically to validate rule from above. Divine right of kings.
Islam came at it from the other direction. First they recognized the usefulness of a common creed, then the political systems coalesced around it.
