[Brian Griffin]

I believe Russia has quite a mix of people as a legacy of the Soviet Union, but since I’ve never been in Russia I can’t say for sure.

[Rockingham]

Like the Soviet Union and the Tsarist state before it, Russia is an empire in that its "federation" is but a thin cover for the domination by Russia of numerous ethnically non-Russian contiguous states and peoples. Russia today is thus still an imperial amalgamation rather than a "mix" that implies American style civic equality and assimilation.

In addition, the Russian state's financial stress and military weakness and the demographic decline of its core Russian population make its future in current form questionable. Putin's invasion of Ukraine is both an imperial bid for territory and an effort to counter Russian demographic decline by annexing an ethnically similar populace that can be gradually "Russified."

Many American conservatives do not seem willing to understand that Putin's and Russia's objectives in the invasion of Ukraine are not amenable to a compromise peace based on territorial concessions and security guarantees to Russia by NATO and the US. The Ukrainians know otherwise -- which is why they are fighting instead of suing for peace.