I wouldn't say it's an imperialist strategy in that sense. I think Russia wishes to have a sphere of influence, a sphere around it where it has a certain level of significant influence. That's not unique to Russia. Historically in other large countries, this has been a fairly common desire, for reasons of security. In the Russian case, it also is augmented by the sense of loss of, you could call it, empire, or the loss of superpower status, which requires some time to adapt to. This is true of many empires, actually. Adapting to the loss of empire is something that requires some time. The desire to have influence in the neighbourhood is not equated, in my mind, to a simple expansionist imperialist scenario.
On February 14th, 2017. See this statement in context.