The survey on the streets
That's almost new (for you) just under two years old! At this rate you'll catch up to the present in.... 2021?
Russia as protector of Slavs. Unfortunately, Russia too often failed in that role
Russia has never seen itself as the protector of Slavs, only a few Balkan nationalists are deluded enough to think that. Tell the Slavic countries that Russians have oppressed that the Russians are their "protectors" and you might learn a few new words...
I've been reading about the Crimean economy being essentially in the toilet since then.
Russians have that somewhere (as they Polish say). Krym nash! And the Crimeans can all starve for all they care. Someone with contacts there told me that both the indigenous tatars and those who had managed to negotiate post Soviet reality had no problem with being part of Ukraine, the only ones that really wanted to be part of Russia were those who were lost without a big-daddy governmnet taking care of them and who were easily bought off with the promise of higher welfare payments (any similarity to Poland in 2015 is purely, coincidental, I'm sure).