I hope you are wrong, but the Russian invasion of the Ukraine might support your view.
Russians have a terrible low fertility, integrating the Ukraine into Russia might have been a last shot at staying the ethnic majority in the country.
Update:
Ih had stetes wrong numbers of the composition of the Russian population before, claiming that only 40 million of russias inhabitants were ethnic Russians.
Russians have a terrible low fertility, integrating the Ukraine into Russia might have been a last shot at staying the ethnic majority in the country.
Update: Ih had stetes wrong numbers of the composition of the Russian population before, claiming that only 40 million of russias inhabitants were ethnic Russians.
The concern with shifting ethnic composition might be true never the less: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/russia-tomorr...