At the end of February, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to put its nuclear arsenal on high alert, the Russian newscaster Dmitry Kiselyov wondered aloud: “Why do we need a world if Russia is not in it?” This is a troubling question, but it's reasonable, at least for Russians. To bastardize Slavoj Zizek’s remarks on capitalism (or Fredric Jameson’s, depending on whom you ask): It is easier to imagine the end of the world than of a country. This is true even for old Russians like Kiselyov, who’ve already lived through the destruction of one civilization. Especially for old Russians, perhaps.