The news that Rex Tillerson, Exxon’s CEO, is Donald Trump’s official pick for the Secretary of State chair has sparked an outrage among Democratic and Republican legislators alike, both sides worried that his appointment would further warm relations between the U.S. and Russia.

To an outsider with a limited understanding of geopolitical dynamics, this outrage would sound absurd. After all, what is wrong with good bilateral relations, especially those between two of the world’s nuclear powers? But to an insider of American – and Russian – politics, the outrage is an understandable knee-jerk reaction, brought about by years of anti-Russian sentiment across the West, after Moscow annexed the Crimea and sent troops to eastern Ukraine in support of pro-Russian insurgents, deepening the political chaos in Ukraine.