Russia isn't even in the same league of spending power and the Soviet army of the past was way stronger.

While Russia spends a lot of money on their army ( % wise), they don't have the resources to renew it. What's left is a lot of old gear and some renewed one.

As a counter perspective, Ukraine would have made it's naval fleet completely unusable, as it needs to pass that country for getting anywhere.

And Europe ( in the last 30 years) came within missile range of Moscow, since the fall of the USSR.

The propaganda of Russia is mostly power related, but they are certainly not as powerful as they seem. And the cards don't look that great too.

A lot of their resources depend on oil/gas purchases from Europe and Europe is investing in alternative sources, while Russia can't raise the prices for their citizens/neighboring countries.

Eg. The pipeline Russia mostly invested in to Germany has been halted, because of Alexei Navalny: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/gas-pipeline-nord...

And last but not least, as a belgian citizen, i appreciate US presence and have no desire for foreign troops to withdraw. We all share ( mostly) the same/similar culture and perception.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_...

Of course raw numbers don't tell the whole story:

* https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/05/03/ru...

* https://warontherocks.com/2019/12/why-russian-military-expen...