The Great Powers

Russia is desperately hard to categorize in the lineup of great world powers. Having been a first-tier power since the Napoleonic Wars, despite hiccups in the 1920s and 1990s, Russia had seemed in the last two decades to carve something that approximated a path to maintaining its international relevance. Core to this was Russia’s vast size, resource wealth, and nuclear weapons arsenal. 

The invasion of Ukraine seemed poised to restore Russia’s international swagger. The failure of that initial attack and the grinding war of attrition that has followed have both highlighted Russia’s weakness and exposed its population and its economy to dreadful damage.