We were. The entire western world went out of its way to normalise relations with Russia all through the 90s and early 2000s, with the intent of increasing economic integration and cooperation, in order to help bring Russia up out of the doldrums created by the collapse of the soviet union. The US sought a full trade relationship with Russia and wanted to increase military and trade coordination. European leaders assumed Russia would want to trade on fair terms for mutual benefit and pursued a policy of wide economic integration.
Russia, under Putin, used that growing economic integration as a tool to divide Europe against itself, subtly or not-so-subtly using its stranglehold on European gas and oil supplies to manipulate EU governments. Particularly germany. In this way it neutered any possibility of a coherent response to his invasions of Georgia and Chechnya, and in the process reverted to its cold war isolationism and belligerence toward the west. Trump himself warned the leaders of Europe about a repeat this same thing in the run-up to the Ukraine invasion, but they were still caught up in the belief that trade would eventually bring Russia back to the table.
This idea that Russia has been unjustly isolated since the 90s is bunk; Russia put itself in this position.
