Dan Carlin's Hard Core History has an AMAZING history of Russia... I cant find which cast, but check out his site, as he has free episodes, but in addition - he puts some of the other eps in his shop on sale, for free!
And Constantinople is not Istanbul. The point ant6n made (grandparent post) was about the worldview of the (roughly) conservative old Russian nationalists who are dropping the bombs, and how much destruction they might find acceptable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus