Sarah Paine

So that's what Kaliningrad is all about.

Another one is Moldova.

That is territory between Romania and Russia on very important river systems.

And Moldova's got problems with a place called Transnistria, which the Russians have poached.

So that story is still ongoing.

And also places like Azerbaijan, it's split between Iran and, well, now it's independent Azerbaijan, but it was split with the Soviet Union.

And then there are the divided states of Germany, Korea, Mongolia, and China.

You want all your neighbors quarreling over their borders so that Russia can then set the terms and that it can nibble them away a bite at a time, or if it can take a whole thing, good for them.

So Russian national identity is not only about empire, territorial extent, it also has some big ideas attached to it.

An ideology that somehow this territorial expansion is either progressive, beneficial, or positive.

It's a myth.

So under the Tsars, the ideology was this Third Rome of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Third Rome was in Moscow.

I know this is news to you.

I'll explain how it works.

So there's the Rome we all know about, the Rome, Rome.

That was Rome number one, the one where the Pope is.

Rome number two, according to the Russians, has to do with the Byzantine Empire, and that was Constantinople or Istanbul.

So when that falls, the Russians go, ta-da, it's Moscow.

Not really.