Part 2 of my reasoning as to what needs to happen to/in the Russian Federation to eliminate it as a persistent colonial aggressor. Here I look into the economic relationship between Moscow and the regions, with a brief look into Yeltsin's foreign policy.
Part 1 recap: The best course of action is to not save Russia’s face but to rip it off entirely, as it is nothing more than a mask, a mask of neoclassical chauvinistic colonial imperialism.
In the previous part, I conclude that Russia is a colonial empire in its foreign policy and internal political structure. I already discussed the aggressive foreign policy of the current regime.
However, contemporary Russia's outward colonial aggressiveness predates the current regime. Think of the war in Transnistria 1990-1992, where Russia took an active part.
Or the 1999 Pristina airport incident, where the Russians took the airport ahead of the British troops, thereby hampering the allied NATO effort and assisting the Serbian side. Russia and NATO were an inch away from going kinetic.
Russian and British troops in tense Pristina stand-off
Russia's interest in Moldova and the Balkans goes back to the 19th century, as the region at large was a point of contact between three empires: the Russians, the Ottomans, and the Austro-Hungarians. Here is a historical brief.
And contemporary Russia still clings to its 19th-century colonial/imperial interests in the Balkans, though the other two imperial adversaries are long gone, highlighting its ongoing old-fashioned imperialist nature. Source: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/02/06/russia-s-game-in-balkans-pub-78235
Why is that? Because after WWI the Russian Empire had never died. It was reborn as the USSR. The empire no longer had a tsar, but all power was still centralized at the imperial court in Moscow. Here is a primer on the history of the USSR from the LOC: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/intn.html
The decolonization process of the Russian Empire (under all labels) started in 1991, driven by a multitude of factors ranging from the Western economic pressure to the political opportunism of the elites.
How three men signed the USSR's death warrant
However, decolonization was not completed. I already discussed ethnic Russian exceptionalism deeply rooted in the Russian collective psyche. Combined with revanchism, many Russians believe in their right to restore their colonial possessions.
The current president of Russia said as much himself recently (for the billionth time). He's not a madman, but simply plays into the populist beliefs of many Russians, he is a product of the Russian imperial system.
https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1534902769638944772
In part 1 I also conclude that the only way to put an end to Russia's colonial ambitions is to break apart the empire in its present form, the Federation. I propose two tools for decolonization: economic incentives and collective guilt. Let's discuss economics first.