The interest in geopolitics is deeply imprinted in the Russian mindset from the Soviet era. Since the dawn of the USSR the Communists always thought in terms of

The interest in geopolitics is deeply imprinted in the Russian mindset from the Soviet era. Since the dawn of the USSR the Communists always thought in terms of geopolitics and influence expansion. It constantly translated through the state propaganda to the masses. Therefore, an average Soviet person would be more interested in the progress on "helping our friends / fighting our enemies abroad" rather than in having good schools and roads in his/her local community. The vast majority of the country were in ruins yet its people were immensely proud of advances in Korea/Afghanistan/Vietnam/Egypt and whatever other warzone the USSR was involved at that time. This mindset has successfully survived the collapse of the USSR and is now widespread in Putin's Russia. Only this time it's about Georgia/Ukraine/Syria as warzones in a traditional sense, and US/Europe as cyber-warzones.