The EU recently started a new round of sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis, which, according to many analysts, will make both Russia and the West suffer.

Historical factors play an important role in this fresh round of Russian-Western conflict. We can see a long-standing clue in the fear by Western countries of an increasingly powerful Russia and the consequent mistrust between the two sides. And this round of tough sanctions on Moscow can be viewed as the latest development of this long-standing contradiction.

During the decade after the disintegration of the largest country in the world, Western countries felt relieved from the threat of Soviet expansionism and nuclear weapons, which, however, came at the cost of Russia's downturn both home and abroad and the national pride of its people.

But the ascendance of Moscow made the West realize that they underestimated Russia. The psychological gloom that has again been reinforced by warfare and political strife is hard to disperse. It is therefore difficult for Russia and the West to establish a staunch relationship of mutual trust.

Moscow and the Western world have different traditions, historical memories, and lifestyles. Furthermore, the two sides have been frequently mired in direct and quasi-direct collisions. As a result, the US-led West has never regarded Russia as a Western state. All these factors have intensified the deep-seated mistrust between the two.

The prejudice of the West against Russia has wielded far-reaching influence upon the international geopolitical landscape. It is this subconscious mentality that has impeded Western countries from dealing with Moscow in a calm and objective manner.

The C-shaped region from Caucasus to Turkey, from the Balkan Peninsula to Poland and further to the Baltic Sea constitutes a long cushion belt running through the European continent. This region witnessed WWI, WWII, the Cold War, the war in the former Yugoslavia which lasted throughout the whole of the 1990s and the Russia-Georgia War of 2008.

The geopolitical root cause for all the catastrophic miseries can be dated back to the pressure triggered by Russia's rise on the heartland of Europe. Once the two sides are engaged in a rift, countries sandwiched in this belt will suffer the most.

This painful process has yielded a list of victims including Poland, the former Yugoslavia, Georgia, and Ukraine, which is still facing a complicated quagmire.

Who will be the next victim? It is hard to tell at the moment. Nevertheless, we can assert that if Western states fail to change their deep-rooted prejudice against Moscow, more victims will occur.

In 1996, US journalist Thomas Friedman put forward a grand theory of capitalism, economic development and foreign relations: "No two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other."

But now we recognize how naïve this claim is despite the increasingly globalized world. The ongoing Ukraine crisis has fully demonstrated that economic globalization is in no way a panacea to a myriad of sophisticated international hot spot issues.

For enduring peace and stability, both Russia and the West should pursue a common consensus involving more political insight apart from mere economic interests.

In particular, the Western world should respect cultures, beliefs and development modes different from it. Without mutual understanding and trust between Russia and the West, this region will not see lasting tranquility.

Mable Wang, a freelance writer based in Beijing