At the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had a total population of nearly 29

—At the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had a total population of nearly 290 million, and a Gross National Product estimated at about $2.5 trillion. At that time, the United States had a total population of nearly 250 million, with a Gross Domestic Product of about $5.2 trillion. That is, the population of the United States was smaller than that of the Soviet Union, with an economy that was more than twice that of the Soviet Union. A quarter of a century later, Russia’s population is about 140 million, with a GDP of about $1.3 trillion, while the population of the United States is over 300 million, with a GDP of $13 trillion. Today, the population of the United States is twice that of Russia, and the US economy is ten times as large.—

Now, right now, as far as I know it’s still over 2T. so a lot can happen in a short time. But the author’s point is that projecting power as a great power is freaking expensive, and requries a large population, and the russian economy doesn’t have it.

It’s pretty hard really to form a power block with <1B people now.