Russia: The Vulnerable Sick Man of Eurasia

Popular history credits Russian Czar Nicholas I with describing 19th-century Ottoman Turkey as “The Sick Man of Europe.”

British envoy Sir George Hamilton’s full quote lacks the headline’s memorable pop: “We have a sick man on our hands, a man gravely ill …” The czar added that it would be dreadful if sick man Turkey slipped away “before the necessary arrangements are made.”

In 2025, hard facts say Russia is The Sick Man of Eurasia — ripe for exploitation by actors making calculating arrangements.

Yes. Arrangements are being made.

Read the entire essay.