I was wondering, is Russia too big and ethically diverse in the 19th and 20th Centuries to function is a liberal democracy with substantial political and military influence across the globe?
If so, how would you administrate the territories of Russia to optimize her performance on the geopolitical field while remaining a relatively progressive democracy? Would you reduce the territory to only the core Russian regions (which ones) with other states ? Or is it possible for Russia to keep territories such as the Ukraine, White Russia, the Baltic States, maybe even Poland and Finland; basically a democratic free market USSR (though I feel as soon as these territories exercise their right to self determination, they are gonna leave just as it happened in OTL)?