So are you disagreeing with Russia being an imperialist power or with people using that cynically to minimize American Empire? Because I've never remotely equated the two, so what's the disagreement here.

It's a very comprehensive analysis utilizing Lenin's theory on imperialism within the framework of contemporary global capitalism. If you weren't disagreeing with Russia being imperialist based on a Marxist definition, then I'm not clear what you're arguing on. Since in practice, Russia's belligerent actions on-the-ground in Ukraine are clearly imperialist. Did you have an actual critique of the article? Because otherwise this conversation just seems unproductive.