With what Russia has little left and they cant attack anyone. They cant even beat Ukraine. The Russian army is a joke.
Let us begin with this evident fact:
Muscovy does not belong at all to Europe, but to Asia. It follows that
judging Muscovy and the Muscovites by our European standards is a mistake to be avoided."—gonzague de reynold, 19501
In methodological terms, one should
de-Europeanise any analysis of Muscovy policy.— thomas gomart, 20062 "
The Moscow Empire, often romanticized by Moscow
propaganda as the natural heir to Kyivan Rus, is in fact a political construct born from the
Mongol ulus of Jochi. Its very foundations were laid not in defiance of the Mongols, but through collaboration with them. Moscow’s early princes, particularly Ivan Kalita, rose to prominence by serving the Golden Horde—collecting tribute, suppressing rivals, and mastering the art of centralized control. This wasn’t resistance; it was apprenticeship. The autocratic traditions, hierarchical bureaucracy, and militarized expansion that later defined Muscovy and its successors were inherited directly from Mongol governance. The Tsar was not a Slavic evolution of princely rule, but a rebranded Khan.
As Muscovy grew into the Moscow Empire, and later morphed into the Bolshevik empire and the modernMoscow Empire, it retained the same imperial logic: control through conquest, assimilation, and centralized authority. The empire’s identity is inseparable from its vastness. It is not a nation-state in the Western sense, but an imperial organism—feeding off its peripheries to sustain its core. The moment it ceases to expand or dominate, it begins to decay. Just as the Mongol Empire fragmented when its imperial cohesion broke down, so too does Moscow’s empire face existential threat when its imperial grip loosens.
Thus, the Moscow Empire is a Mongol one—not just in origin, but in essence. It can only exist as long as it remains an empire. Strip away its imperial structure, and what remains is not a coherent nation, but a fractured shell. Its survival depends on the continuation of the very system that birthed it.
So, a Putin soldier in Ukraine is rocking a patch that looks suspiciously like
Alaska? Fascinating. Are we annexing U.S. states now, or is this just a fashion statement? Any experts out there who can decode Moscow
geopolitical couture?
and
