I guess that prediction would be laughable if it came from Nostadamus or some modern-day equivalent soothsayer.

But the guy who is saying is a respected analyst.  Then again, he's Russian:

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

He's been making this prediction for more than a decade, and now, with the economic collapse, people outside of Russia are listening to him.

Okay, so what's this guy actually saying?

He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

And the WSJ article even provides a handy-dandy picture of what a post-U.S. U.S. would look like:

It looks like North Carolina, where I live, is going to get all french-i-fied, since it is part of "Atlantic America". 

We'll have to start wearing berets and eating baguettes.

Although Panarin thinks this has a 55-45% chance of happening, I'd say that there is a 99.999-0.001% chance that Panarin doesn't have a clue about American culture. 

And Texas falling under Mexican influence?  I'm no expert on the Lone Star State, but I just don't see that happening.

And Alaska becoming Russian?  Oh, I don't think so.  Not with Sarah at the helm.  She knows how to kill a moose from a helicopter, and she can see Russia from the coastline.  Did Panarin factor that in?!?