Russia is arguably in a worse position due to the war in Ukraine because: Russia's national sovereign fund has shrunk, the potential market for their gas/oil has shrunk, their demographic/population crisis is more severe, their civilian economy has grown worse (High inflation, growing corporate bankruptcies. Trump called Russia's economy a "disaster". Russia's Innovation Index score has dropped since the war in Ukraine [20]. See: A somber outlook for the Russian economy, 2024 ), the Soviet era stockpile of weapons has shunk, Finland/Sweden joined NATO, and NATO's military budget has ramped up. Any "victory" that Russia achieves in the war in Ukraine will be a pyrrhic victory.
Back to Bipolarity: How China's Rise Transformed the Balance of Power Free (Russia and India are not great powers), International Security, MIT Press, Volume 49, Issue 2, 2024
What are the arguments that Russia is not a great power?: "Arguments against Russia being a great power focus on its limited economic and technological capabilities, coupled with a history of impulsive foreign policy decisions and internal struggles. While Russia possesses a significant military, it lacks the economic and technological strength of true great powers."
Still a great power? Russia’s status dilemmas post-Ukraine war, Journal of Contemporary European Studies. Volume 32, 2024 - Issue 1
Russia is no longer a world power, The Telegraph, May 2025
"But once Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed his war machine, that narrative of Russian power swiftly unraveled. The Ukrainian army, supposedly outgunned and with little chance of resisting conventionally, fought back with brains and ferocity. And Ukrainian civilians, whom many experts thought to be divided over the question of the country’s relationship to Russia, rallied to defend their homeland. Meanwhile, Putin’s military floundered. Its weapons and doctrine proved to be lackluster at best, and its soldiers performed far worse than expected, thanks in part to corruption and poor training. Hundreds of thousands, maybe more than a million, Russian men of military age fled the country to avoid conscription. And just last week, the Wagner paramilitary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin briefly seized control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and threatened to plunge the country into civil war, sending his mercenary fighters to within 120 miles of Moscow. This stunning revelation of Russian weakness calls into question not just Moscow’s status as a great power but also the very concept of a great power." - Foreign Affairs, 2023[21]
Russia Just Lost Its Great-Power Status, Project Syndicate, December 2024
Alexander De Croo: Russia is no longer a world power - and here's how Europe can fight back, video, 2025
Russia Is No Great Power Competitor, American Interest, 2019
Russia Is No Great Power If It Can’t Beat Ukraine on the Battlefield, 2022 (1945 website)
Ukraine Has Exposed Russia as a Not-So-Great Power, The Atlantic, 2022
Russia Resurrected. Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order By Kathryn E. Stoner. Publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2021. "She argues that Russia is not a great power, in a traditional understanding of the term, but rather an effective disruptor/challenger to the contemporary international system." - How powerful is Russia?
Please see: Russian power in decline
Decline of Russia - Google site
Economic projections out to 2034: Focus-Economics.com: "The Russian economy faces an uncertain future, influenced by deteriorating population dynamics, sanctions, the Ukraine war, and global economic conditions. Modest growth is expected in the near term, but risks abound; tighter sanctions or escalating conflict could lead to renewed economic contraction."[22]
Russia's non-operational aircraft carrier (which is Russia's only aircraft carrier), the Admiral Kuznetsov, is the laughing stock of other navies. [23][24]