Whither Putin?

Earlier missives mused that Putin's true goal was to re-make the olde USSR.

With the ruble now basically a worthless domestic currency, and Russia not nearly a self-sufficient domestic economy, Vlad could well go to war someplace. Stoke, once again, the vision of Greater Russia (USSR) for Real Russians. Stay tuned.
[2014, if you don't click]

Today brings a contrary view, which is also more expansive.

The Bolsheviks, in Putin's view, created the artificial republic of Ukraine. What he dreams of rebuilding is not the USSR but the pre-1917 Russian Empire.

Well. What is that "pre-1917 Russian Empire" of which he speaks? Here's is one view.

At the height of its expansion, the Russian Empire stretched across the northern portions of Europe and Asia and comprised nearly one-sixth of the earth's landmass; it occupied modern Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Finland, the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), the Baltic Republics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), and significant parts of Poland and Turkey.

That's a WOW!! As mentioned earlier, most of Russia, per se, is useless tundra. Without the more temperate western lands, 'Russia' isn't much more than dried fish eating Eskimos. The USSR never got that expansive.