| Soundwave said: I think we could see a new type of Russian Empire forming, certainly I think in the next 10 years, Russia's power over all of Europe will increase. |
Even with France and the UK in the picture the Russian military's the largest in Europe. No one questions that. Among the Great Powers, they've always held the position of top dog and few people have questioned it (there's a reason EU politicians are scared that France and the UK leave the EU and more so that France becomes friendly to Russia, since without France alone they are already defenseless).
China itself isn't ready to try and take that position yet. They are a Germany of sorts, using their economic weight rather than military and political muscle (and for the record, Russia's economy isn't bigger than theirs, but it's unrealistically sturdy. You'd have an easier time banging the US economy into recession than doing the same thing to Russia's economy, which by the way, will be resuming growth this year even in spite of sanctions, even though it's weak).
TL;DR as someone who knows this conflict since forever, I am able to safely say nothing kept them from powering up. At best, the UK and the US slowed them down. They didn't really stopped them (it's like the myth the US brought down the USSR even though it collapsed when Russia itself wanted out).
No idea why people are throwing around theories on them becoming the USSR II... If they wanted to, they'd have done so by now and potentially destroyed civilization afterwards.
In other words... No, they aren't interested in your eastern regions...
