Not so perceptive as having read a few books (hasn't made me wise, just put two and two together):
- Ivan IV declaring Moscow the "Third Rome"
- Tsar Alexander's aim to push and free the Balkans from Turkish rule
- Tsar Nicholas' aim to crush the Turks and win Crimea and thence onwards to Constantinople (books on the Crimean war) which was stopped by the English
- "1920: the miracle on the vistula" by Adam Zamoyski which talked of Tukachevsky, the Soviet military genius who nearly won the war to spread the revolution to Germany and Western Europe. Even though he hated Christianity (called it "the religion of the dead Jew") and pretended to worship the ancient Slavic deities, he still wanted to lead Russian armies to conquer Constantinople
Constantinople is so ingrained in the Russian mindset since the baptism of the Rus that they will strive for it no matter what.
Let Erdogan play the fool (I hope I am not being short-sighted and don't see a card he has up his sleeve)