I think that GP point might be about being able to direct the military and economic might. The US is surely ahead in terms of numbers... but even if they wanted

I think that GP point might be about being able to direct the military and economic might. The US is surely ahead in terms of numbers... but even if they wanted to stop any military involvement in the middle east tomorrow, and pull back from NATO, there'd be a lot of push-back and it would heavily disappoint its allies. Compare with Russia: they have some involvement in Syria (and other places, I'm sure), but if they'd pull back from Syria, I'm not sure who else besides Assad would complain. From this point of view, their hands might not be as tied as the US' I agree that Russia counter-sanctions can be just a delusion, but I think that another interesting point is that sanctions aren't biting as hard as they could've in Russia, due to their massive reduction in public debt: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/09/11/russias-net-public-debt-falls-to-zero-a67238 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/09/11/russias-net-public... They had slow (or absent) growth, otoh.