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I have an acquaintance. His name is Sergey. He came to Kyiv about thirty years ago (he is now over 40) from Russia. He finished school and university here, got married... Throughout the time I've known him, he always spoke Russian. Deliberately. He never spoke Ukrainian. Also deliberately. He always presented himself as being very Russian, as much as possible. Probably, all Russians in Russia combined were less Russian than he was. Although, when asked what exactly his "Russianness" consisted of, he never gave a clear answer. He would limit himself to vague phrases and immediately change the subject.
In general, one day he had problems – he owed money to someone. He had nothing to pay with. And Sergey ran away from his problems as far as possible. To Russia. To his relatives. They welcomed him there, helped him with housing and a job. Everything was as it should be. Just live and be happy.
And he lived. And he was happy. But after three weeks, Sergey returned to Kyiv, found the money to pay off his debts, and hasn't left here since.
And when asked why he ran away so quickly from his beloved historical homeland, he just waved it off.
Later, I was told that, while drunk, he finally confessed why he returned – he couldn't stand the local customs, couldn't adapt to the people around him, and there were other horrors about the unsatisfactory state of the utilities and widespread drunkenness. Especially among young people... And this is in a regional center.

However, my cousin, who has lived in Moscow since 1982, tells a slightly different story. She says that things are not as bad as they are shown in the movies...
Who knows.

It's sad when you realize that nothing remains of the empire.

What about imperial ambitions?