Russian leaders have quickly seized on the notion of a liberal empire to refashion their own foreign policy agenda. To a great extent, since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991, a policy priority for Moscow has been retaining influence in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The concept of a liberal empire, Russian leaders hope, provides the Kremlin with an ideological rationale for pursuing a controlling interest in those regions that will not meet stiff resistance by the international community.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav102703.shtml
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