> NATO is basically the US, France, Germany, and the UK.
I'd definitely add Turkey to that. Has more duty members than anyone but the US. More aircraft than anyone but the US. More ships than anyone but the US. More armored than Germany, UK and France combined. They may not all be as high-tech, but it's quite capable, and has nuclear capacity (though no capability right now, like Germany). Beyond being one of the most interesting partners from a geographic perspective.
> The US economy is now nine times the size of Russia's, and that gap will only continue to expand - there's only so much military threat a country can pose when it has an economy that is going to eventually be ~8% your size.
And yet, Russia is a Nuclear power, a regional power and has a UN security council seat. And it has better ties with US's backyard in a number of South American countries, as it does with the regional power in the Middle East: Iran, which will only grow its influence now that its counterweight Iraq is ruined, and the Shia majority of Iraq welcomes, to an extent, Iran for security and stability, much like Hezbollah started out in Lebanon.
That means it can't attack Russia head on (because nuclear), it can employ sanctions, but Russia's economy is relatively sturdy because its main export product is relatively easy to sell (fossil fuels, Europe simply needs them one way or another), compared to economies reliant on exporting less crucial products. Russia is able to regionally trespass international law, and Nato is unlikely to fight it militarily, and while economic sanctions do hurt (a lot), Russia is still a market economy with economic partners, and has an export product in high demand.
So while I agree, Russia is far from the most powerful force, the game is definitely not over and Russia is still a major player and it'll likely continue to be. Especially in a world where China is balancing the playing field. (e.g. its economic/infrastructure led push into South American politics, again, America's backyard, or acting as a trade partner for sanctioned economies).
Fact is, a military means less in a nuclear age where direct confrontation is rare and economic/cyber/guerrilla options take priority. Especially when you have large economic blocks that all employ market economies outside of the US/EU, that can provide trade partnerships for sanctioned economies. Cuba was able to easily survive when it had the Soviets as a trade partner in the 50s or 60s. But as the Soviets had no market economy to grow its economy and Cuba was sanctioned to hell and back, it became stagnant. Today, a country like Iran is sanctioned similarly, but it can survive and even thrive, its population grows, its economy advances (somewhat, slowly), its military grows, its political influence grows fast in the region, and it works towards a nuclear bomb, despite harsh sanctions. It's because the US cannot simply invade it, nor twist the whole world's arm to stop all trade. Non-aligned countries, Russia and China, and neighbouring countries, all continue to trade with Iran, whether officially or not, legally or covertly.
The US power is not going away anytime soon, and it's true that it is more powerful than ever. Fact is, the same can be said of many other countries. Russia is much stronger today than anytime in the past 30 years or so. As is China, as is Iran, and South America has never been so independent of US influence as today. Paradoxically, the US may have already lost the long-term game despite the fact I agree with you, it's never been this powerful in a way.