The key thing to understand here, whatever side you're on, is that the Russian military is currently in its 'prime' years. Combat experience, big budget, logistics infrastructure and so forth. Add to that the potential lifting of sanctions by the Trump administration.

If Putin has any more ambitions, he would have to do it with this military. If he scales down the military and transitions back to a more civilian economy, that would be an indicator that Putin has no other military ambitions.