[adrian_b]

I agree that I was referring to the behavior of the former USSR and of the earlier Russian empire, so to the last few centuries until Gorbachev, not to the present Russia.

Nevertheless, unlike Germany, which has apologized publicly many times for what the Nazis have done, and which has paid consistent reparations for a part of the victims of the Nazis, neither Putin nor any other Russian leader has ever apologized for any past actions of Russia. Paying reparations would be even more unconceivable for the Russians, who continue to claim that they have "liberated" the people whom they have enslaved after WWII.

I have seen nothing in the public speeches of Putin that would indicate that he would ever behave in relation with an invaded territory differently than it was traditional for the Soviet Union leaders or for the earlier Russian tsars.

Until the man himself would say and act otherwise, in a credible way, the only rational assumption is that an invading Russia will behave like always in the past.