Russia and US International Relations "I cannot but think . . . that the future growth of Russia . . . is not a little overrated. Without a civilizing of the hordes nominally extending the Russian domination over so many latitudes and longitudes, they will add little to her real force, if they do not detract from it; and in the event of their civilizing, and consequent increase, the overgrown empire, as in so many preceding instances, must fall into separate and independent states" Former President James Madison had enough clairvoyance, in 1821, to predict the downfall of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991. At that moment, the