I don’t think so, at least not necessarily, because they are not part of Russia’s historical core. He surely would like to have them back in Russia’s sphere of influence, but I don’t think they are essential to restoring Russia’s greatness. Ukraine is in another category.

> I don’t think so, at least not necessarily, because they are not part of Russia’s historical core.

Putin referred, in his war announcement speech, to the USSR as a historical Russia, and blamed it's leaders for allowing it to fall apart, implying that reversing that was among the goals of his efforts; his idea of the “Russian core” appears to be the union of former Soviet and Russian Imperial territory (possibly not including the North American holdings, but who really knows.)

Putin is referring a lot to pre-Soviet Russia in his elaborations. My impression is that his aspirations are more about tsarian Russia than about Soviet Russia.