You will never be a real superpower. You have no force projection, you have no blue water navy, you have no economy. You are a regional power twisted by a nuclear arsenal into a crude mockery of imperial perfection.
All the “validation” you get is two-faced and half-hearted. Behind your back nations mock you. Other permanent UNSC members are disgusted and ashamed of you, your “allies” laugh at your dilapidated military behind closed doors.
NATO would utterly destroy you. Tens of years of military evolution have allowed NATO to wipe out frauds with incredible efficiency. Even your "modern equipment" looks uncanny and unnatural to NATO. Your lack of PGMs is a dead giveaway. And even if you manage to temporarily surpress enemy air defences, your soldiers will turn tail and bolt the second they get a whiff of their diseased, infected rations.
You will never be relevant. You wrench out a fake ICBM every single Victory Day and tell yourself it’s going to be ok, but deep inside you feel the depression creeping up like a weed, ready to crush you under the unbearable weight.
Eventually it’ll be too much to bear - you’ll voluntarily disarm, put in an application to join the EU, and plunge into the first world. China will look at you, heartbroken but relieved that they no longer have to live with the unbearable shame and disappointment of being your ally. They’ll replace you with India on the UNSC, and every passerby for the rest of eternity will know Russia as a regional power. Your Soviet armour will decay and go back to the dust, and all that will remain of your legacy is a lower G20 economy.
This is your fate. This is what you chose. There is no turning back.
