MOSCOW — For most of the post-Soviet years, Russia has been torn by a question that haunts its people and their rulers: Do Russians want their country to be an imperialist power feared by other nations or a land whose primary concern is its citizens’ well-being?

President Vladimir V. Putin has resolved the issue, or so it seems. He has decided to tip the balance in favor of ambitious expansionist politics rather than domestic development. Prosperity for the people is all very well up to a point, but it has a downside: It produces independent-minded individuals who may try to vote their ruler out of office.

Pursuing grand strategies on the international stage is safer — at least for Russia’s powers that be. Defending the Russian-speaking populations of the former Soviet Union creates so much tension both at home and abroad that the domestic economic agenda is dwarfed in comparison. Who cares about economic deterioration, poor public services or endemic corruption when the nation is gripped by imperialist fervor?

But in pushing Russian expansionism is Mr. Putin really making a safer bet? When asked by pollsters about what Russia’s priorities should be, respondents are generally divided. In a recent survey by the Levada Center, a Russian nongovernmental research organization, 48 percent favored prioritizing the country’s international standing, while 47 percent said they favored a government that concentrated on creating conditions for individual prosperity.