Putin dreams of new Russian empire: has he lost touch with reality? † Inland

What does Vladimir Putin want? The Russian president is always clear about his ambitions. Putin wants to return to the borders of the former Soviet Union. That former superpower of fifteen republics centered on Russia ceased to exist in 1991, but Putin, the KGB officer, has seen the collapse of the USSR (“The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century,” in his eyes) never accepted. His entire tenure has been dominated by a restoration of Moscow’s lost sphere of influence.