Granted, I'm not a military analyst.
But some things are obvious.
Russia has a severe problem with Muslim terrorists.
They share a LAND border with these nutcases..... enough said.
China - this one could take a while.
China is surrounded to the South and the West by mountains. China is blocked on the east by water.
The only clear path for armor is to the north. If China wants to add land or resources, they're not going to be able to cross into India. Armor will be extremely vulnerable in the VERY HIGH mountains.
Like us, Russia has a severe immigration problem. But theirs is worse. A longer border. And MORE immigrants, with even LESS security.
There are millions of Chinese immigrants in eastern Russia (Siberia).
It would be suicidal for Russia to attack us. We have common enemies. We have much more in common intellectually and culturally.
And we are not a clear and present danger.
We're wondering WHERE China can hit us with nukes. China can hit ALL of Russia right now.
Thus i think all this 'Red Dawn' hyperbole should be applied to China (and to a lesser extent a future Pakistan that is led by a crazy zealot)!
If Russia wanted to get into a fight with the US it would have done so decades ago when it was the hegemony USSR! Currently Russia is still extremely powerful militarily, but it is led by people who have brains in their heads (unlike Pakistan which is always under the sword of damocles in that Musharaff could be kicked out and some Islamist zealot take power ....or China which is as we speak taking steps to develop assymetrical warfare assets to be deployed against the US shoudl we try to defend Taiwan from it).
People need to get off their cold war mentality and see Russia for what it is ....a budding ally and a strong one at that) in a world where the US needs all the allies it can get.