The Maksim Kalashnikov article referenced above is an interesting one but doesn't say too much that is new.
That a land so huge and rich in natural resources can be managed so incompetently is quite tragic (One wonders if the citizens of Moscow are really looking back on the USSR as the good old times). But in a sense it's not news to find that a land full of riches doesn't need a functional democracy or a civil service uncorrupt or even a military that operates within the terms of international law and doesn't use extreme abuse to maintain the authority of it's middle ranks.
Such niceties are not needed, nations based on fossil and mineral can make a living quite nicely without needing to equitably educate it's workforce, without the need for democratic checks and balances to, eventually, restore order and competence to the running of the nation.
But what the article misses is that Russia does retain a few competences even if these, like it's space launch technology are largely inherited of the Soviet era.
Russia's competence in the area of propaganda and news management remain high. It's been argued that such areas as Climate change denial and the Brexit argument were promoted by such Kremlin funded troll farms. With global warming and a weakened Europe both being positions that Russia welcomes.
So let's not be too cocky, the Kremlin does have the odd good card left. Even if, these days, it's largely used to convince its local population. Yet a far cry from the good old days I think.