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"I don't know anyone who would argue that nothing has changed since 1991. "
In 17th century there were "kaftans", in 18th - "kamzols", in 19th- "syurtuks" and in 20th - jackets. What one needs to seek the changes in is NOT the clothing fashions, or the name under which the not-so-secret police operates - from Ivan the Terrible's "Oprichnina" to the most current "FSB" - but the underlying sociology, like the role the coercive state organizations play in the state and society. Thus one could argue that nothing sociologically essential has changed, and even if it did change, the change was merely cosmetic.

I was looking at the geopolitical picture, not the state of society within Russia. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (as well as many of the Warsaw Pact/Soviet satellites) are in NATO and the EU. The Central Asian 'Stans have US bases (at least for now), and pipelines are being built so their natural gas and crude oil can bypass Russia. I'm not aware of any Russian military bases outside pre-91 Soviet borders. And Russia has its hands full retaining Siberia.