A Former Superpower Coming Out of Hibernation: Today’s Russia in World Politics

Today’s Russian Federation is the legitimate successor to the former Soviet Union. The breakup of the latter, almost two years after the end of the Cold War following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the crumbling of the Warsaw Pact, did not drag the former into disintegration or demise. Despite the withdrawal from territories that had been under Soviet rule in the ‘near abroad’ and around the Soviet flag worldwide, and despite the Chechen secessionist movement, Moscow remained the glorious capital of a Russia that, while profoundly wounded in its greatness and international prestige, was nevertheless territorially united and nationally sovereign.