[Cronos]

Successive US administrations have expressed pronounced fears regarding the prospects of Russian state collapse. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most western policymakers were apprehensive about the impact of the unravelling of the Soviet Bloc and the collapse of the Soviet Union. They calculated that imperial fracture and state collapse would lead to civil wars, mass bloodshed, and unstable borders. Such fears were transmitted to national leaders in Ukraine and other states seeking to extract themselves from Moscow’s empire, but the government in Kyiv and the majority of the population did not heed the advice of a nervous US administration.

The collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the unravelling of the Soviet Union should serve as poignant lessons that geopolitical revolutions occur regardless of Kremlin disinformation or the West’s belief in a permanent status quo.

[Cronos]

Russia has 21 "republics":

1. Adygea - a republic of the ancient Circassian people (history dating to the classical era)
   
   
   
2. Altai - a TurkiC people with Yenisean admixture
   
   
   
3. Bashkortostan - a land of the Bashkirs, another TurkiC people - this time from the Kipchak branch
   
   
   Buryatia - Buryats are a Mongol people
   
   
   
   
4. Chechnya - well we know them, eh? A North-Caucasian people with at least 2000 years of known history --> One interesting note, they were Christianized by the Georgians but went full on Muslim Sunni only when threatened by Russian conquest
   
   
   
   
5. Chuvash - another TurkiC people but this time from the Oghuz branch (the other sub-branches died out)
   
   
   
   
6. Mordvin people - an Uralic people distantly related to Magyar and Finn/Estonians
   
   
   
   Mari people - another Uralic group
   
   
   
   
7. udmurt - another Uralic people and the people with the most instance of Red hair (so largest % of Neanderthal genes)
   
   

And the Yakuts, etc. etc. - not to mention there are Koreans in the far eastern oblasts

[glorgau]

> Successive US administrations have expressed pronounced fears regarding the prospects of Russian state collapse.

This one is actively encouraging it.

[rrrod]

On a different level, 1990s saw the expansion of trade and tourism. Americans poured in, spent money and took photos.
I was doing biz thru out the Gulf region and Russians were flying in by the plane load.
Encountered some at various hotels and always cordial.
But that all change in the late 90s and into 2000.