ABSTRACT
The Russian Federation emerged as an independent state in 1991. The
unthinkable had happened, and the once mighty world power, the USSR,
had disintegrated with little warning into 15 independent states. In an
imperial and then Soviet guise, Russia had been an empire for three cen-
turies, and now it lost territories accumulated over centuries. The independence of the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania together with
Moldova was one thing, since they had only been reincorporated during the
Second World War, but the separation of the Slavic republics of Ukraine
and Belarus was something else. A diminished Russia emerged, unclear about
its own identity and fearful about its place in the world. Yeltsin unequivocally
accepted the reality of a smaller country, and thus the Yugoslav scenario of
endless wars to maintain a ‘greater Russia’ (such as those fought by Slobo-
dan Milosˇevic´ under the slogan of a ‘greater Serbia’) were avoided, but no consensus had been achieved by the end of the 1990s on Russia’s proper size
and character. National identity is about defined and defensible space; it is
also about imbuing that space with a sense of common purpose and destiny.
This was the challenge that faced Putin on assuming the presidency.
