hey, all. this thought occurred to me just yesterday. my original plan had been to write in analogies to Russia's recent wars (Georgia, Ukraine, etc.) into my ASB ATL, which more than one person IOTL has suggested is Putin basically trying to set himself up as a new tsar (iirc, his basic goal is to establish a new hegemony for Russia so that they'll be powerful again like the Soviet Union, at least in intention)
now, a possible point against that occurred to me: in the TL, Russia still has most of the same territory it did historically, for the most part only having lost its southern Caucasus states since the relevant POD for the Soviet Union not existing ITTL. with that in mind, would Putin (or an analogy to him) even feel the need to engage in these wars? or would they be more likely to still occur in some way? like, would conflict still arise in Ukraine if it was still part of Russia? (in which case it would be a civil conflict/rebellion/revolution). any input on this?