“Russia has never won a war outside its borders either.”
I agree with almost everything you’ve written, but as others have pointed out this is wrong.
Regardless of how Russia got into WW2, Russia did win (with help from the rest of the world). It expanded it’s borders and sphere of influence.
Russia also expanded more or less into Siberia up until almost the 1800’s, Kazakhstan in the mid 1800’s, and was blocked in Afghanistan (by the British) in the late 1800’s.
Looked at from that angle, Russia expanded from the 1500’s up until the mid 1900’s all around its periphery.
I would agree with you that it is wrong to say Russia never won a war outside its borders, if Russia hadn’t been invaded by Hitler during WWII. But, on June 22, 1941, Germany invaded Russia in Operation Barbarossa. Hence, I distinguished Russia’s victories when being invaded from its loses in border wars beginning in 1904.
The other part of what you said is correct. If you go back far enough, you find that Russia and its predecessor, the Duchy of Moscovy, were variously defeated when invaded, and were successful when invading others.
For a time, Moscovy was a vassal state of the Mongols. Upon the withdrawal of the Mongols from the region, Moscovy, and later Imperial Russia expanded to the east, the south and the west.
To the south and the west, this expansion involved conflicts with the Persians, the Ottomans, and others. To the west, expansion involved conflicts with Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and others. (The countries I just mentioned were, at the time, quite powerful.)
You are also correct to notice the conflict involved Great Britain in Afghanistan, and also in Crimea. While Imperial Russia was in the process of creating a great, contiguous land-empire; Great Britain was in the process of creating an even greater, non-contiguous maritime-empire, which brought it into conflict with Russia and many other countries at various times. We (the U.S.) are the successor of Great Britain. We are the size of a continent, but - having one face on the Atlantic and another face on the Pacific - we are like a big island. Our interests were at the start, and still are today, peace and free trade with all countries. We have no “natural” enemies. Every country is, at least potentially, our partner in trade, if not our friend and ally.
We need a great President for us to realize our great destiny. With patience and persistence, we can be instrumental in securing peace and human rights for the whole world. Not through empire. Just the opposite. By securing the sovereignty of all nations. This can and should include Russia.