By December 1941, Moscow was under seige and the survival of the Soviet Union was literally in the balance. That was about to change when the Germans were stopped before Moscow and America entered the war, opening a huge pipeline of supply to Russia. But, neither of them knew that was in the future when this little incident occurred.
Stalin really thought Hitler would keep his word, and seemed to be poleaxed and unable to lead in the early phases of Germany's Barbarossa -- Molotov was sent east for meetings with the Japanese, and they were not fired up about another meeting / beating with the Red Army. Molotov wired back to Stalin that he believed the Czarist-era treaty would hold. That led to the transfer of 70+ divisions out of the east (which is where the first stroke of war had been expected), with the trains loaded to extreme capacity to move all the armor and big guns and everything else to the USSR's western front, and returned east for more, completely empty. That led to the first effective counterattacks.
For his part, Hitler was just a dumbass wanting a do-over of WWI, with the change that one front (France etc) would be finished up first, allowing the use of most forces against the Soviets. Obviously that was just brain-dead. The only move was to finish off the British in North Africa and the Mediterranean, take control of the Suez Canal and access to the Middle East oil. By the time 1943 rolled around, and Germany was finally fully mobilized, *perhaps* it would have been feasible to invade the USSR. But then again, why? What could have been gained, conquering a poverty-stricken nation of agrarian serfs?