isely is the main guarantor of the security of the Russian world.” In 2014, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin dredged up the tsarist-era term Novorossiya to de- scribe a large swath of southeastern Ukraine that he hinted might be annexed. Suddenly, the Novorossiya idea began appearing in Russian media,

ely is the main guarantor of the security of the Russian world."4 In 2014, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin dredged up the tsarist-era term Novorossiya to de- scribe a large swath of southeastern Ukraine that he hinted might be annexed. Suddenly, the Novorossiya idea began appearing in Russian medi

nst Georgia in 2008. Now Putin also implies that Russia would begin to treat a broad swath of southeastern Ukraine -- a region historically called Novorossiya (New Russia) that was transferred to Ukraine by Soviet authorities -- as a Russian protectorate. But tough talk on Ukraine doesn't signal a prefere

iver. Russia's advance continued a century later, during the rule of Catherine the Great, who imagined her domains along the Black Sea constituted "Novorossiya," or "new Russia" -- a term revived by the pm-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Back then, the Russian court harbored dreams of collapsing the