He claimed more than once all land a Russian soldier ever set foot on as genuine Russian possession - That would be the old Warsaw Pact.

Do you have a quote for that?

I have checked his essay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Historical_Unity_of_Russians_and_Ukrainians and it doesn’t sound that extensive.

Putin’s Erasian doctrin

Which doctrin?

He needs vasall states, not partners.

The way the EU reacted to Venezuela, it couldn’t get much worse. But is that really the Russian objective?

Why would France and Germany alone not be stronger than Russia? Apart from Nukes, if Russia aligns with Europe, e.g. like Norway, wouldn’t that shift power to the EU?