Heavens, yes! That the capital of Russia (Moscow) is the third and final "Rome" has been a major part of Russia's self-identity ever since the late 1400s and the 1500s. (The first Rome was Rome itself, the second Rome was Constantinople, which fell to Muslim armies in 1453.)
Here is how one Russian writer, the monk Filofei [Philotheos], exhorted the Russian Tsar [the title comes from the Latin word "Caesar"] in the early 1500s:
"all the Christian kingdoms came to an end and came together in a single kingdom of yours. Two Romes have fallen, the third stands, and there will be no fourth. No one shall replace your Christian kingdom."
This exhortation has been quoted over and over again since the 1800s in Russian schoolbooks on the history of Russia, to the point where it has become deeply embedded in Russians' consciousness of their historical destiny.
Re: Norther Roman Empire
Here is how one Russian writer, the monk Filofei [Philotheos], exhorted the Russian Tsar [the title comes from the Latin word "Caesar"] in the early 1500s:
"all the Christian kingdoms came to an end and came together in a single kingdom of yours. Two Romes have fallen, the third stands, and there will be no fourth. No one shall replace your Christian kingdom."
This exhortation has been quoted over and over again since the 1800s in Russian schoolbooks on the history of Russia, to the point where it has become deeply embedded in Russians' consciousness of their historical destiny.