Apologies for the delay in coming back to your observation, . Yes, I agree that this is a point in need of better clarification throughout all of the articles surrounding Rus' and states that latter emerged out of the rubble of the Mongol invasion. With Kievan Rus', the decision was not to show any successor states simply because such contiguity didn't exist. Once a kingdom in razed, it's finished. What remained was some princedoms/provinces who managed to survive in some shape, later opportunistically fighting each other for the land and spoils of war. I know I'm preaching to the converted, so I'll stop there.

Trying to make such changes in a single swoop is only going to start up edit wars with nationalists (I know you've been stuck in the middle of the worst of it), so I'm just trying the "a little at a time" approach as an alternative on articles. It's a long term project. Retaining the stamina to keep improving just demands patience.