It wouldn’t be better but it wouldn’t be worse either. This is a unmaterialist take. Russia doesn’t have the global spanning military empire America took a literal century to build.

And if the US empire were to collapse over night, Putin would step right in to fill the same exact role.

Being a materialist is when you subscribe to great man theory. How would the Russian Federation (because Putin is a 71 year old man and presumably wouldn't live to see a Pax Russiana) step right in to fill the same exact role? How would Russia take on the role of NATO or the IMF/WB, Western tools of imperialism that Russia isn't even a part of? At least people crying about so-called Chinese imperialism could gesture towards the BRI as the Chinese equivalent of the IMF. What the fuck does Russia have?

It is not better, it is literally exactly the same.

Tell that to the people of Latin America or the people of Africa or literally anywhere else in the world that is not Europe. There's a reason why people in AES support Russia and people in the other AES go around waving Russian flags as they tell the French to gtfo. The fact of the matter is Russia doesn't have the legacy of colonialism like the West has, and people have long memories.

In Africa, Russia has always played an anti-imperialist role, even going back to Tsarist Russia under Nicholas II (yes, that Nicholas) when they supported Ethiopia against Italian imperialism, ensuring that Ethiopia was the only African state (Liberia was a US proxy state, so they don't count) to be a free and sovereign African state during the scramble for Africa. And this was Russia under some shitty anti-Semitic tsar. I don't even need to go over what Russia as part of the Soviet Union did on behalf of the people of Africa. Westerners enslave Africans for more than 4 centuries and have the typical Western arrogance to think that Wagner Group killing African civilians or some Russian diplomat being anti-Black is somehow equivalent.

Again, radlibs getting mad at hypotheticals

I disagree, Russia’s foreign policy has been way better than the USA and they have not participated in the same predatory lending practices that the USA has with developing nations. If the USA were to collapse, Russia would most likely undergo a revolution since the U.S. fascists wouldn’t be able to back the struggling bourgeoisie like it has done in the past.

Also saying that Russia would take US place is very naive. Russia doesn’t have the same level of alliance the US has with Europe. A disappearing USA will just make the global south stronger

Edit: Also Russia is an ally of China and is helping Africa. Moreover, Russia is now killing Nazis. Therefore, supporting Russia against Nazis and NATO is the right move. Right now Russia is hundreds of times better than the USA. Once the USA disappears we’ll worry about what’s next

i think russia doesn't have the navy or globe-spanning military bases to do that?

Putin would step right in to fill the same exact role

Russia unlike the US doesn't have the corpse of the British Empire and 50% of the world's industrial capacity to piggyback off like the US did after WW2

Empires do not all have the same capacity, means, or internal structures that can guarantee a one-to-one replacement theory like you just asserted

The idea that the Ruble could ever become the equivalent of the US petrodollar is anti-historical and anti-materialist and if that won't happen how on earth would Russia dominate global capitalism the way the US currently does?

And if the US empire were to collapse over night, Putin would step right in to fill the same exact role.

We aren’t dealing with hypotheticals. We’re dealing with material reality as it is right now.

Note if China were to become the world hegemon, that would be an improvement compared to the US because they actually have a political ideology other than hoarding wealth and power.

China is probably Russia’s most important ally.