Feng paints a stark picture of a country intent on restoring imperial dominance now struggling with a rapidly changing geopolitical reality and unprecedented isolation. He argues that since the eruption of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, Russia’s decades-long influence in Eurasia, rooted in its Soviet legacy, is swiftly waning under prolonged military attrition, crippling Western sanctions, and an erosion of its influence over neighboring states due to their rising new national identities.
From Ukraine’s definitive pivot toward Europe to Kazakhstan’s cultural reawakening and Armenia’s retreat from Russian alliances, Moscow faces a critical juncture where the aftershocks of the Soviet Union’s dissolution may gradually subside. Feng suggests that the very notion of “Eurasia” as a cohesive geopolitical concept may fade, leaving Russia grappling with the realities of diminished power and a region increasingly beyond its control.
Feng is the author of a well-read op-ed on the war in Ukraine in The Economist in April.
In March 2023, Pekingnology, our sister newsletter, was the first in English to highlight Feng’s extensive Chinese-language analysis of Russian History, Culture, and Contemporary Development since the war broke out.