I'm going to chime in because I'm confident I know how they meant and I don't want to see this discussion get bogged down in "but he didn't literally boil babies" levels of discourse.

As much as all of us around here they're around the word balkanise, it's clear that the imperial hegemon doesn't need its former adversaries divided into chunks, merely subservient. Japan is subservient, they accepted a deal that would make their exports much less competitive, even though they didn't have a plan to deal with its ramifications. They accept usian bases in their land, because the constant spill of American rapists and the possibility of an outright occupation are a small price to pay if one of happy as a vassal anyway.

Yeltsin was the same. The drunk fuck didn't give a toss how much he pissed away the wealth of Russia, or how her people suffered. Unfortunately for the sрooks that got him elected, his successor and his base of support wanted an equal relationship with the west. Even as I say that, I believe (pure conjecture, have no source) they'd have accepted a position like Germany if it came without the ritual humiliation Germans get their kicks from. At any rate, if they wouldn't just be subjects, they'd be subjected, or at least the hegemon would try.

Anyway I didn't write any of this with the belief you didn't know, just to have some clarity.