For all the political chess, Russia's economy is still smaller than Italy's, despite having a pretty good setup in theory.

Russia is able to make noise and do things to Eastern Europe, but the government's moves seem to be much more about preserving the current government rather than advancing the interests of the nation as a whole

For example: how does annexing Crimea help Russia? Was that one navy port worth it?

A calculated risk, perhaps. But they seem to be bad at math.