Russia a weak major power
Russia is a former superpower that is striving unsuccessfully to rebuild its lost influence while experiencing decline and a failed state status (See: Will Russia become a failed state within 10 years? Is Russia currently a failed state? Will Russia eventually become a failed state?).
Russia a weak major power, Google AI
In 2014, the international relations scholar John Mearsheimer said: "Russia is a declining power, and it will only get weaker with time."[3]
In a 2023 interview, the international relations scholar John Mearsheimer said Russia was a "weak great power" (See: Why Russia-Ukraine War May End In A Frozen Conflict & Why US Should Focus On China: John Mearsheimer, 16:09 in the interview). Russia had great difficulty gaining land from the country of Ukraine which has a much smaller population due to Russia's weak military (see: Russian military weaknesses). From superpower to "weak great power" - sad!
Stephen Kotkin: Russia is a relatively weak power: "Stephen Kotkin, a historian at Princeton University, argues that Russia is a "relatively weak great power". He suggests that Russia has a long history of aspiring to great power status, but its capabilities often fall short of those aspirations. This discrepancy, according to Kotkin, leads to a sense of frustration and a tendency to overreach in foreign policy."[24] See also: Russian power in decline
"...Russia has almost always been a relatively weak great power. It lost the Crimean War of 1853–56, a defeat that ended the post-Napoleonic glow and forced a belated emancipation of the serfs. It lost the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5, the first defeat of a European country by an Asian one in the modern era. It lost World War I, a defeat that caused the collapse of the imperial regime. And it lost the Cold War, a defeat that helped cause the collapse of the imperial regime’s Soviet successor." - Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics, Stephen Kotkin, Foreign Affairs, 2016
Russia is still the weakest great power, Asia Times, 2019
Donald Trump on how the Soviet Union became Russia: "Let me just tell you about Russia. Russia used to be a thing called the Soviet Union. Because of Afghanistan they went bankrupt. They became Russia. Just so you do understand. OK?" "What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations." - Sun Tzu. "There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare." - Sun Tzu
"Russia today is terribly sick. Her people are sick to the point of total exhaustion." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Forbes 2012 interview.[25] (In recent times, Russia has experienced economic recessions in 1998, 2008–2009, 2014–2016, and 2022. So his remark was not during bad economic times).
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on great power politics: "For every country, great power status deforms and harms the national character. I have never wished great power status for Russia, and do not wish it for the United States." - Forbes 2012 interview.[26]
Russia is no longer a great power