Grammatically speaking, based on other clues and the solution itself, your empires should be 'Russian' and 'Persian'

The pedant is correct. Enjoyable grid, but no red herrings so quite easy.

Occasionally I'll see a comment offering an improvement to a set of clues that was seemingly acted upon, as the comment will no longer reflect what I see on the grid. Good on the creator and the commenter. It's annoying when the mistake or obfuscating clue is left unchanged. Why wouldn't you want to fix it and not wallow in mediocrity?

this one