Whether Russia existed before, was the issue because you wrongly claimed that Russia the country didn't exist before 1991 which is an absurd comment to make.
Russia wasn't just one of the republics, it was the centralised government,power and main FSR of the USSR. A new Russian Empire controlled from Moscow, Russia. Russia today’s WAS the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of Soviet Union. Fact.
Once US defeated Russia in the cold war the rest of the union rapidly collapsed. Fact
