In Robert Gates's memoir "Duty," he describes how
at the end of the Cold War [in the late 1991], Dick Cheney—then secretary of defense—wanted to dismantle not just the Soviet Union but Russia itself. No one in the US knows or cares about this, but I bet lots of people in the Russian government do.
Just as no one in America knows about Cheney and Russia,
no one knows that Jimmy Carter gave Saddam Hussein a great light to invade Iran. But you better believe the Iranian government is aware of that.
Putin addressed this very explicitly in his year end press conference last month. The key part is from around 28:30 to 29:30 here:
He draws a comparison to the Wilson administration's concern about USSR's size in 1918 and says even today the US can't accept a Russia with a size of 146 million people.
So you're right [referring to
Jon Schwarz @schwarz ]. Though it's completely ignored here, the Putin government is keenly aware of it.
A Teaching Associate Professor of Russian, with a research/policy interest in Russia, Central Asia, and foreign/second language education, at Oklahoma State University, Jonathan Z Ludwig posted:
"It's what we're going to have to do with China when the point/opportunity comes."
[referring to the opportunity to dismantle China into several smaller parts like the aspiration of some in the US Foreign Policy establishment to break up the Russian Federation.]