Did you ever consider that Russians just have a distaste for war in general? I find this to be true across their culture. They certainly don't have a problem maintaining a strong defensive posture, but don't really like to use it, especially without a good reason.
Case in point: Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear"...long range bomber entered service in 1956. Constantly used in western media as a symbol of Russian projected strength. Care to hazard a guess when the first actual operational use in combat was? I'll tell you: November 17th, 2015...almost 60 YEARS after its introduction.
You make my point better than I did. Ergo, we should be wary and cautious with them but not overly intimidated because their history in WAR since WWII has been exactly what you say.
A friend of mine, who just died, and I’m going to his funeral tomorrow, worked in the old Soviet Union for over 20 years. His firm had some contracts to install the skeleton, coast to coast fiber optic trunk lines. His office was literally across the hall from the KGB. Anyway, he laughed and said that basically there is very little in Russian Weaponry that even begins to meet the qualitative level of the US no matter how hard they try.