RUSSIA AS A PROBLEM AFTER THE COLD WAR
The transition crisis: dangerous side-effects of reforms:
The nuclear risks
Possibility of a totalitarian backlash
Potential for civil war
Tensions with new neighbours, attempts to maintain a sphere of influence in the post-Soviet space
Russia as a US client: no longer counterbalancing the US (not a problem for the US, but a problem for many other states) – or:
Russia as a member of coalitions to counterbalance US hegemony (a problem for the US)