title: Turning to Empire
abstract: This article is devoted to the situation created after the accession of the Crimea to Russia. We shall review the choice that Russia is to make and has already partially made. And this choice is that of a civilized path of development. Do we assert ourselves as a civilization different from the European one (i.e. the Western), and if that is the case then what kind of spiritual resources have we got to lay in its foundation. Are we returning to the imperial paradigm of nation-building, has an ac