Eh, their real problem was that their banking system was rigged. Depositors had no choice but to put their savings in the government bank, that lent out to smaller banks, and they lent to businesses that were connected with them. Money was doled out because of connections more than because they thought something was a good investment. Eventually enough of those loans went bad, and boom! Financial crisis.
Putting nuclear reactors on major fault lines didn't help either. At least Diablo Canyon they were able to torpedo. Though I wonder if they would have had the builders not been caught red-handed placing the main emergency water evacuation exhausts on
backwards!
Your description sounds like if the old National Bank of the mid-1800s had taken over the entire US banking system!
It's fairly simple, nobody likes Russia.
Russia is the generic mobster in the corner who for centuries has been trying to get people to obey him to or else.
Which differs from other great/superpowers exactly how?

That is exactly the modus operandi of, say, late 19th century Britain, or todays USA.
The difference being:
"I'll make you an offer you can't refuse"
and
"Sign on the dotted line or I'll break both your legs"
Most post industrialised countries tend to be food negative, but Japan is an extreme example.
I still say they have a big aging problem, but yes. They will probably hunt down the world's last cetaceans to feed their food needs.
Russia as a maritime power will basically geographically become another United States.
If only the eastern and northern parts of the county weren't so terribly inhospitable and inaccessible.
Unless they annex China, North and South Korea, Vietnam, the entire Near East, Scandanavia, the Balkans, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Low Countries, Germany, and France.

The USA has a HUGE number of deep warm water ports. Indeed, the only one I can think of that compares to Russia's historic weather and geographical port problems is Nome in Alaska.
