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By the way, gentlemen. I might surprise you, but calling Russia an empire is actually incorrect. We were all taught this in schools, it's written in textbooks, and Marxist professors referred to our country that way. Russia has never been an empire! Today, this is a relevant debate among many historians, and I support the view that it was not an empire.
Why? I'll explain!
An empire strives to expand through colonization; look at the history of any state, from antiquity to the 19th century. But what exactly did Russia colonize? Nothing!
Parts of Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, etc., became part of Russia (the USSR) NOT as colonies! But rather as a full-fledged (almost) union of socialist republics. Why "almost," because Stalin centralized power.
If we go back to earlier times, the development of Siberia was NOT colonization. We did not force anyone.
The only exception is Central Asia. And even there, Russians were forced to defend themselves against Uzbeks, Tajiks, etc. Their endless raids did not allow peace, so they had to intervene. But again, the conquered lands in Central Asia were NOT colonies.
Russia has never been an empire! We were all raised and taught the opposite.
It's not for nothing that they say there is an accepted history, and there is the real history (c).