...unless you think you can convert an enemy into a slave.
i don't know if the russian narrative is purposefully ignoring this or missing it altogether. i've been pointing out for years that the russian policy positions are just hopelessly naive. consider bmd, for example. they want to join the system? that's their response? when you hear this, what else is there to do but take a sip of vodka, put your head in your hands and laugh/cry? i know they've started building their own recently, but i don't think there's been a shift in policy..
so, i'm going to claim that it's established that the russians are consistently naive. which makes the question as to whether they really get this or not valid.
the americans don't want a merger. that's what would happen if they started integrating, and it leaves open the threat of russian pre-eminence in the alliance. there's a few countries that might find themselves in agreement with russia more often. it's giving the russians an opportunity to establish hegemony right underneath the hegemon's nose. that's not how hegemon's behave.
nor do they want to be in this perpetual conflict point with russia, or even to integrate russia into the empire in a passive way.
what the americans want - and you have to contemplate this carefully - is to defederalize the russian state into small republics, then integrate each of them into their system independently. if they're going to be able to do this at any point in the near future, that window is closing.
so, no it doesn't make sense to convert a possible ally into an enemy. but it does make sense to seek to dismantle and permanently obliterate an enemy altogether.