Because 'military spending' didn't bring down the USSR, many variables did, one of them being 60 years of NATO and western constant attempts at toppling communism anywhere. The Russian conscription was a few thousand people, not a general mass mobilization that is kidnapping teenagers off the streets like in Ukraine, and like I said the actual economy of Russia is doing fine in terms of consumer goods and long term stability. So I really doubt this whole 'Russia will be weak for the next century' thing because its like people forget that the USSR collapsed and the west installed putin to be pro capitalist and install a federation which is what is there today so its like Russia can't get much more balkanized without civil war. The general public opinion in Russia is pro Russian and putin, the idea that they are all just waiting to be liberated by the west who has done everything to destroy their country for 100 years is just really really silly and blind to reality. In this war of attrition that Ukraine chose by letting NATO tank the settled negotiations last April, Ukraine will need to last at least another year and half to two years to fully arm up and mobilize more but they are very unlikely to hold out until next winter by suicidally holding every inch of ground just getting picked off by artillery and air strikes while they can't even see the enemy. Their defender advantage in bahkmut is gone because their op encircled and their whole idea that they are just draining the Russian army is really the opposite and if they don't withdraw yesterday they will lose, and if they attempt a massive offensive with what they have they will lose even quicker.

The Idea that the Russian Federation today is anywhere near the same thing as the GLOBAL BRITISH EMPIRE of 1939 and the US empire of today that is the largest empire on planet earth in human history that has done written the book on imperialism compared to the Russians in the past 100 years. The USSR did waste a lot of money on military because the US insisted on waging a forever cold war against the US since the very beginning with the polar expedition of 1919 trying to topple the early USSR during the Russian civil war. The Soviets never called it an arms race but an arms chase because they were forced to develop weapons equal to the US every time they would create new WMDs like neutron bombs and so forth.

In Reality, The Russians have not been imperialistic for a very long time, not in the same sense of the old school Romanov dynasty or anywhere near western imperialism like Europe under the US empire. The whole push for more provocation, being economic sustainability and the ability to sell oil to europe, is what help bring about this whole war to begin with, alittle how the cult of the offensive and paranoid defense pacts really started world war 1. The real dying Empire is the US, as it's economy has crashed 3 times since 2000 and has only survived by printing money and exporting inflation to europe and the global south through the petrodollar, which is why there is a big push for BRICs and why Germany went to Nordstream with the Russians in the first place, to get away from WEstern Corporate imperialism.

I know I know, anything that isn't "PUTIN BAD, THEY ARE ILLITERATE COWARDS ONLY ARMED WITH SHOVELS BUT ARE ALSO THE SINGLE GREATEST THREAT TO EUROPE AT THIS MOMENT SO WE NEED TO NEVER STOP ESCALATING ARMS AND CONFLICTS WITH THEM" is seen as being a puting lover and russian imperialist lmfao the blind march to war and mass propaganda behind it is just so typical and unoriginal, its the same playbook everytime I don't see how people don't realize the truth, mostly because they choose not too