I don't think there's much question that Russia is looking for a path to resurgence, and have been for some time. We could go the conspiracy route and wonder whether certain deep-cover factions in Russian politics didn't either engineer, actively help, or at least go along with the collapse of the Soviet Union in order to gain economic strength and wealth through western reforms, and simultaneously a new distrust of western culture among the Russian populace. I wouldn't necessarily put it past Putin to have been thinking this way for many years. He's capable of playing a very deep game--much deeper than any American politicians can manage.
I don't recall where I read it, but about a year before the collapse, some low level American and Russian diplomats were meeting and after a few too many Vodkas, the Russian supposedly spun a tale about how the Soviet Union was going to collapse, but that this was planned to basically unbalance everything and weaken the resolve and ability of the U.S., which would decommission its military and enter a long period of self-congratulatory, albeit premature, celebration. Meanwhile, the Russian people would suffer, and perceive their suffering to come at the hands of the West. The Russian petroleum industry would step things up, and pretty soon, Russia would be back with a lean fighting figure against a fattened and unaware opponent(i.e. us). And isn't this what's basically happened?
But whether this is believable and correct or not, I think the way things are going it may as well be. We can't pull our heads out of our asses long enough to start acting like a real country again lately, and there are now several strong Asian states (principally China and Russia) who can challenge the supremacy of the U.S. in international affairs.