Russian state television openly laments the fact that the world no longer fears them.
Their equipment is mostly junk. Their soldiers are untrained and poorly supplied. The body armor Russia was touting a few years ago turned out to be hardened cardboard. They are still using the same tactics that NATO is equipped and trained to defeat, despite the spectacular failure of those tactics in the Gulf War. They are still dependent upon the west for critical components for all their weapons systems. Russia's MBT losses are approaching the half-way point, which is astounding. The SU-35's targeting pod has been dissected and decoded by both the U.S. and Britain, which is why they don't dare bring SU-57's into the theater for fear the same thing will happen.
What else does Putin have, except the nuclear threat?