Russia’s Changing Identity: In Search of a Role in the 21st Century

... devastated by the Mongols. The invasion led to a split within Russia. While its western and southwestern principalities (now Belarus and Ukraine, respectively) lost their independence and were absorbed by the neighboring countries of Lithuania, Poland,... ... in the United Nations system, that is its position as a permanent veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council. In Russian history, the Soviet period stands out for two aberrations resulting from the communist ideology that the country’s leaders embraced ...