Andrea Junker 
In history class, I never understood how “advanced” civilizations could collapse. It just didn’t seem plausible.
Anyway, I’ve seen enough. I get it now.
VoidZeroOne 
@Strandjunker it's an empire and all empires are bound to fall.
Haelwenn /элвэн/ 
@TheOneDoc @Strandjunker At least we got quite few recent examples, like USSR in the 90's as well.
So better documented than ancient ones like roman empire, bronze age, …
So better documented than ancient ones like roman empire, bronze age, …
Edgar@TheOneDoc @Strandjunker Fail is a strong word. Maybe “transform”? Russia has been acting imperial for centuries. It was an empire in the 1709s. It subjugated its neighbours for various reasons, geography and food access for eg.
Take Finland… since 1809, it has been annexed by Russia, achieved independence, then lost a chunk of territory to the USSR (heavily Russian power structure in the USSR)
The USSR lost dominance over its neighbours in the 90’s. The Russian SFSR became the Russian Federation
They’ve started wars with Chechnya, Geogria, and Ukraine. While suppressing non-Russian minorities within Russia.
They’re influencing the Iran war.
Russia still sounds hella imperial to me
Benjamin Ultan Cowley@Edgar @TheOneDoc @Strandjunker this conflates institutions with culture. Russia is culturally Russian, with strong incentives to strongman rule and conquest (see Boyars).
But the tsarist empire failed, and the USSR failed, and modern Russia might still fail with the amount of stress it's under.
Empires tend to fail when the internal dynamic of wealth extraction becomes top heavy. USA is definitely in that phase. Not clear if it is irrevocable
But the tsarist empire failed, and the USSR failed, and modern Russia might still fail with the amount of stress it's under.
Empires tend to fail when the internal dynamic of wealth extraction becomes top heavy. USA is definitely in that phase. Not clear if it is irrevocable