Russia's identity and international politics

As a result of the wholesale collapse of the former Soviet Union the Russian successor state finds itself in a serious crisis. Not only in material and institutional terms, but also with respect to the state's political self-awareness. As Gerhard Simon, Director of Studies on Domestic Politics and Structures at the Federal institute of East European and International Studies in Cologne, points out, the Russians, as unlike other peoples of the defunct ''outer'' and ''inner'' empire, cannot simply fall back on national ideas and the nation-state as a self-evident goal of their development. This obviously has far-reaching international consequences.