There is also another possibility. When Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east to Byzantium, it was renamed Constantinople. But Romans, whether they spoke Latin or Greek, also called the city the "Second Rome."
When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, Russians thought of Moscow as the "Third Rome." It is not just by chance that the Russian Tsars were Romanovs. (The word Tsar comes from the Latin Caesar.)
Russian messianism always saw its mission in the world as the defender of Christianity. That mission became atheistic and Communist after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians are seeking a new mision in the world. I think it quite possible that they may go back to their roots as the "Third Rome" and the defender of Christianity, or at the very least a Slovophil/East European culture worthy of preservation and defense against destruction and disintegration by the onslaught of Islam from the south and encroachment of China from the east.
Don't discount the Russians to defend their country and culture. They many turn out to be an ally after all.
Good history.