It's probably also important not to assume that Putin's desired outcomes are the same as the West's, with it's emphasis on expeditionary warfare. Russian logistics and deployability have improved vastly, but their intended persistent reach is probably not much further than the borders of the former Soviet Union. It is far safer and cheaper to engage in non-military destabilisation of the West using our own political and legal systems, not to mention cyber-warfare.
As for racism and human rights, very much a US and Western European construct grown from our own relative safety (I'm not suggesting they are not valid). I find the further East you travel, the less they resonate. Very useful for propaganda and mirroring though.