This is, BTW, a return to the pre-commie days.
Good point. What we see here is nothing new. An ugly vein of Russian chauvinism and history shows itself again. Fact is, the average Russian considers all of the former Soviet Union part of “Russia”. This won’t end well when a nuclear armed aggressor has such an attitude.
Almost all of the former USSR was part of the Russian Empire before WWI.
Russia was heading in the right direction in the decade before WWI, but it has never really had rule of law. The law in Russia has in practice always meant whatever the men in power wanted it to mean.