The Role of Russia in the 21st century

 A dying out nation can not assert herself as a superpower on the world stage.

So as Russia mostly ruled with quantity while quality has always been the loser in Russia it only shows dark clouds for good old Rodina? But still quantity enough to bully his European and Caucasus neighbours, so still no good news for us, the little guys.

Russia has lost some of her most populated territories in the XXth century:
-1920's Poland, Finland, Baltics.
-1990's Ukraine, Baltics again, Belorussia, Central Asian Republics and South Caucasus.
So now it's not the same country like The Imperial Russia before 1917 neither the USSR in 1945-with the lost territories the population is diminished too. The other factor is the low reproduction rate of the population- but it's a problem for the whole Europe. The rapid population growth is a characteristic for the not developed third world countries and has nothing to do with the international position of any country. Other factor is the huge immigration which is also characteristic for all of the East European countries.

Originally posted by Desperado Russia has lost some of her most populated territories in the XXth century: -1920's Poland, Finland, Baltics. -1990's Ukraine, Baltics again, Belorussia, Central Asian Republics and South Caucasus. So now it's not the same country like The Imperial Russia before 1917 neither the USSR in 1945-with the lost territories the population is diminished too.

Yes maybe Russia lost territories but she is still the biggest country in the world.

"...Really? So what will you say about India? Do you think that this country means nothing?"-I'll repeat it once again: the influence and the economic power of a country in the XXIth century are not proportional or directly linked neither to it's population numbers or the population growth. The countries with fast growing population are not the most developed countries, but just the opposite. In China and India (which are developing countries) the governments are trying to diminish the population growth with a vast campaigns of family planning and even forcefull sterilisation-so it's a not the factor that leads them to progress.

"..It was before 1926, not after this year. I have given data for population of Russia in 1926."- I see, but nevertheless you're comparing USSR with the Russian Federation, which is almost the same as to compare the UK with the British Empire: a different territories, even in the geographical meaning.

The population diminishing in Russia was because the overall economic regress of the country compared to USSR, but not the population diminishing was the reason of Russia's decline.

Then which are the current "1st league" countries if there are no European and more interesting why?

My classification:
1st class "Global factors": USA, Russia, China
2nd class: UK, Germany, France
3rd class: India, Japan, Italy, Spain
Local "Great powers": Iran, N. and S. Koreas, Brazil, Pakistan, Turkey, and Israel

To be a first class World power, the country must have self-sufficient military industry, big territory, to control a lots of natural resources and posses advanced technology. The China doesn't answer on some of this requirments but possess a huge army and industrial might, which are big factors.
I'll not agree with you about Japan : it's only advantage is the economy, but with its slowing growth in the the last decade it's not sufficient enough to promote her as a first class power. Also it doesn's possess any nuclear weapons and has weak military industry.
For the military power in the Modern world the demography isn't a big factor-Israel is a good example for that. Even without weapons of mass destruction to be in use, Israel managed to beat the many times more numerous by population Arab countries.

Russia really has problems with population but things can change in the next years.Predictions that their population will be only 100-120 millions in 2050 are only predictions.The fact that russia is the greatest nuclear power shows that it still remain a great military power.With the time russian economy will grow very fast and may become the europe biggest.Dont forget that Russia has the biggest natural resources in the world and one day it may become a member of european union, it is an option.In fact this is the only wat to make europe the most important factor in the world.

I think in case of joining Russia to EU, EU will became a part of Russia  And we will got EUR (European Union of Russia)

Looking at the arrogance of proud of nations like Russia, we would all be speaking Russian on a daily basis in a union with such dominant Russian influence. No thank you!!!