The Russian bear?
Churchill once stated that Russia 'was never as strong as it wants to be, but never as weak as so thought.' Even today this statement holds true. Its geo-politics seem to have an never ending curse that can't be shaken. Russia lies between the two great continents of Europe and Asia, but it's kind of unsure which one it belongs to.
The GDP of Russia and its economy is worth looking at. It has around the same GDP as Mexico on a global scale which is not saying much. As we all know from basic economics, the ability of a country to grow depends on creating goods and services, and this is directly linked to the imports coming directly into the country. But if a country has limited access to those markets, then the GDP can't grow as quickly.
Powers hard and soft
Russia is far more weaker than people realise. A richer country like America for example can readily access global markets, and thus spread the favourable image of itself that it wishes to export via soft and hard powers.
Ultimately the power of the West (Western Europe/North America) has been based on economic wealth, but the West only contains a fraction of the people of the world, but many of these people are extremely wealthy.
The recent World Bank statistics tell us that Russia's GDP in 2015 was £1,326 billion which would place it mid table in the top #20 GDPs of the world.
In essence Russia is dwarfed by the economic superpowers that are the US and China. At most it's a superpower of medium power that spars with countries like Mexico and South Korea. More like a bear cub in reality. Lets just leave it at that.