The article attempts to identify and analyze key factors contributing to some positive shifts in the positions of a number of Western states in relations with Russia over the past year and a half. It is shown that for a variety of reasons, for a number of key issues of world politics as a whole and in assessing the political strategy of Russia in particular between the Western states themselves, there are more or less serious disagreements and contradictions. This provision is based on the fact that a number of states, abandoning sharply anti-Russian policies, take certain steps to normalize relations with Russia, while other states, including the EU level, strongly oppose such changes. Having critically analyzed these tendencies, it is shown that positive shifts in this sphere, in addition to a variety of other reasons, are determined by Russia's strategic turn towards the East and its rapidly growing rapprochement with China.