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I remember getting a briefing on this one in a training class in the USAF back in the 80’s. He went so far as to state that they would in fact use capitalism to obtain the materials needed in order to defeat us — effectively they would use our rope to hang us.

I don't even nec. doubt that such a "plan" could have existed in the minds of this or that delusional Soviet. That doesn't mean that (a) everything that has happened since has gone according to such a "plan" or that (b) some sort of resurgence is inevitable because that's what the "plan" says.

Was Chernobyl part of the "plan"? the devaluation of the ruble? the pyramid schemes and kleptocracy of the 1990s? rejection of Russia-linked leaders in former Soviet state after former Soviet state (cf. Yuschenko, Ukraine)? all part of the "plan"?

Heck, let's even stipulate that that it was - that all of that is part of the "plan". My conclusion: terrible, terrible "plan".

Let's remember, these are people who had plenty of "plans" over the course of 70 years. None of them worked out all that well; why would we give them unwarranted credit for the ability to craft "plans", or imbue those "plans" with any sort of genius or momentum?

I never thought twice about that, until Putin woke the bear from hibernation.

Putin "woke" nothing, he just makes more noises, so what. Russia is a sad, backwards mafia state and getting more so. The only thing the USSR really had going for it was that it was seen as the vanguard of an ideology that appealed to romantics and intellectuals. But that ideology has been thoroughly eviscerated and now all Russia really has is oil money and the ruthless men who sit on it. Russia's greatest minds come to the west and get rich in computers or Wall Street. (another part of the "plan"?) Those left behind either have no sense of national pride (the state religion having been discredited) or, in some cases, lapse into an ugly variation of skinheadism. Meanwhile the birthrate is deflating, the "state" has devolved & is somewhat of a fiction (Moscow functions as a sort of superstate-within-the-state). The armed forces rely on conscripts for crying out loud (those who can't bribe or college their way out of it).

This may be enough to convert Russia into something akin to Saudi Arabia but that is a far cry from USSR at its peak.