“Western historians often compare the Russian Empire with European colonial empires. However, I would argue that the Ottoman Empire is the closest historical parallel to Imperial Russia. Therefore, understanding their similarities will be crucial for predicting Russia’s future trajectory and making decisions about it, the expert said during a speech at the 6th Post-Russia Forum of Nations.
Therefore, the West must finally understand that a unitary imperial Russia will always be its eternal enemy and that its preservation in its current form will not bring any benefit. On the contrary, its disintegration will be much more profitable for the West in geopolitical terms.
The new states that will emerge in the post-Russian space are almost guaranteed to be friendly and grateful to the West. With this turn of events, Western civilization will gain new members to its family, or at least reliable allies. And it is they, and not unitary imperial Russia, that will most likely take the side of the West in the future confrontation with China.
Therefore, the United States and Europe should definitely abandon the idea of a unitary Russia. Instead, the West should start building close relations with various regions within Russia directly, bypassing the central government. It is also desirable to actively support the national and regional movements for independence emerging in its space. This will be necessary to secure future post-Russian independent states as reliable allies against China.
By itself, the goal of bringing Russia closer to the Western world and making it a reliable ally is actually correct. It is worth striving for. But its implementation was still wrong. Instead of trying to bring Russia to the West as a whole, which, as we can see, will inevitably turn into a failure, it is possible to make the same Eurasian space in separate parts an ally of the West.
Thus, the emergence of various independent states on the former Russian territory will turn out to be a huge win for the West in all respects. First, because it will expand European civilization, returning to its bosom its natural members, who at various periods of history were forcibly torn from it by Muscovy-Russia. In this regard, first of all, the northwestern regions of Russia, corresponding to the historical Ingria, the Novgorod Republic and the Pskov Republic, come to mind. It would be similar to how in the 19th century Greeks and southern Slavs returned to Europe after 500 years of Turkish yoke. Or how the current Eastern European countries returned to Europe after centuries of Russian-Soviet yoke.
Second, the independent states that will emerge in the Far East and Siberia can be modeled on the successful countries of East Asia, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Thus, the West will gain new allies in Eurasia.
