* Russia's Point of View

Above you can see a map of the world from Russia’s point of view. Sometimes the most powerful graphics are not those with special effects or provocative statistics, but those that change your perspective. This is one such map.

The days of the Soviet Union are over and are not about to return. The U.S. is the world’s most powerful country, and unlike in the Cold War, it has no peer.

Russia, however, is still a formidable regional power, making headlines in recent years for its military actions in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria. Much of the coverage you’ll read about Russia centers on President Vladimir Putin – his skill as a leader and the extent to which many Russians love and admire their leader and their country.

But more important than Putin’s attributes is to understand how any Russian leader must view the world.

Look carefully at this map and all of Russia’s major strategic issues become immediately apparent. Russia’s core is west of the Ural Mountains, and Russia’s biggest cities – Moscow and St. Petersburg – are closer to Europe than anywhere else. Russia is a vast country, and the majority of its land is in Asia, but deserts and mountains separate Russia from China, India and much of South Asia. Russia’s orientation is first and foremost toward Europe, and second toward the Caucasus and Central Asia.

In almost all cardinal directions, Russia has strategic geographic features that naturally define the scope of its power – and to the west, unlike during the days of the Soviet Union, Russian power no longer extends to its natural buffer zones in the Carpathians and Eastern Europe.

Russia’s major cities lie along the North European Plain, the invasion superhighway of Europe, and without strategic depth, Russia is vulnerable to would-be challengers stationed in Eastern Europe. Russia is a land-based power, so the importance of the Black Sea – Russia’s only access to the Mediterranean – becomes clear. So too does the inevitability of conflict with Turkey, which is the gatekeeper of the Bosporus and therefore controls that access.