The book De Principatu Debili (On a Weak Principality) is an essay on the origins of Russian statesmanship written by a renowned political consultant. The form of the text is unusual - 26 additions to Niccolo Machiavelli’s treatise “The Prince”. By analogy with 1914, the author assesses the global situation as pre-front. He is worried about the question: is Russia ready for war and for victory in it? The answer is critical and paradoxical: The Russian Federation system is weak, but unusually flexible and planetary “nimble”. Based on personal experience, Gleb Pavlovsky considers our weak statehood to be strategically invulnerable in times of peace and ready for war.