It bears pointing out that Russia's economy is 7% of the size of the U.S.'s and highly leveraged to natural resources, its population is shrinking, its industrial base is a shambles, and it's dealing with multiple societal crises (alcoholism, AIDS rate upswing, brain drain, etc).

I'm not saying that to be a US-triumphalist; most Russians are great people. And the country has some great things going for it (STEM education, athletics, etc).

My point is, during the Cold War, the US and its allies were engaged in a tooth-and-nail fight against the USSR and its allies to win a very public argument about whose system was better. This is no longer the case. People in some countries might wish their leader was a macho man like Putin, but nobody in their right mind wants their country to become more Russia-like.

So, who cares if the Russian security services are best-in-class? Who cares if their cloak-and-dagger game is head and shoulders above that of our spies? They're the tip of a spear with a rotting shaft.