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“Russia is so pathetic. Oil below $50 once again. Pooty is hurting big time.”

About the only thing that makes Russia a big player is the leftovers from the old USSR: nukes, lots and lots of nukes.

Otherwise, we are dealing with a country that has an economy the size of Italy (or New York State, if you prefer), which is highly dependent upon oil and natural gas for its foreign currency reserves (which it often times uses to cover budgetary shortfalls), and which has a knack for picking “allies” and vassal states that are even more of a basket case than they are (Cuba, Venezuela, Syria...need I go on?). Oil and natural gas are pretty much guaranteed to not go much higher in price for the foreseeable future, as Trump has already opened up the floodgates for the oil companies to drill like crazy, and the US is sitting on probably more oil than Saudi Arabia (and definitely more natural gas, and not by a little).

They also have a pretty crappy geopolitical position - hemmed in on the west by a bunch of former vassal states that pretty much hate their guts (and are arming themselves with Western weapons) and backed by NATO, on the south by a bunch of unstable Moslem countries/fiefdoms/loose tribal haters of the rest of the planet (please refer any complaints about this to the Department of Redundant Redundancies Department) and to the east by 1.3 billion Chinamen who still harbor a grudge about half of Siberia being stolen from the Manchu Dynasty 400+ years ago. Oh, and the largest economy on the planet on the other side of the North Pole, with thousands of nukes pointed in Russia’s direction from the land, sea and air, and a truly first-class military (and now with a pretty tough cookie running the show). Yeah, not a position that I’d like to be in. The only geopolitical advantage that Russia has is its sheer size - as in, no one will be stoopid enough to try to invade them for at least another 100 years.

One thing that they have is a smart and rather ruthless leader...but even he can’t find skittles-shitting, flying unicorns to make his country more competitive with the US.

You can’t dismiss Russia’s ability to really screw things up for us and the rest of the world, but they’d gain nothing from that except a lot more radioactive parking space to add to the over-abundance that they have in the Chernobyl area. They’re deserving of respect for that, but they are no longer any real competitive threat to this nation (if they ever really were, and there’s a bunch of evidence that their economy was a giant Potemkin Village during the entirety of the Cold War).

Looks like a pretty nice aircraft to me

Maximum speed: 830 km/h (516 mph)[4]
Range: 15,000 km (8,100 nmi, 9,400 mi) unrefueled
Service ceiling: 13,716 m (45,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 10 m/s (2,000 ft/min)
Wing loading: 606 kg/m² (124 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 235 W/kg (0.143 hp/lb)
Missiles: Up to 15,000 kg (33,000 lb), including the Raduga Kh-20, Kh-22, and Kh-55/101/102, or 8 Kh-101/102 cruise missiles mounted on underwing pylons.

Our B-52

Maximum speed: 560 kn (650 mph, 1,047 km/h)
Cruise speed: 442 kn (525 mph, 844 km/h)
Combat radius: 4,480 mi (3,890 nmi, 7,210 km)
Ferry range: 10,145 mi (8,764 nmi, 16,232 km)
Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,000 m)
Rate of climb: 6,270 ft/min (31.85 m/s)
Wing loading: 120 lb/ft² (586 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.31
Lift-to-drag ratio: 21.5 (estimated)
Bombs: Approximately 70,000 lb (31,500 kg) mixed ordnance; bombs, mines, missiles, in various configurations.

The B-52 is clearly the better aircraft, rate of climb really stands out. But the TU-95 looks like it can get the job done too.