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According to the video and the book, Russia is immense geographically. It spans 5000 miles across and 2000 miles vertically. The country crosses 11 time zones and borders ranging from Norway to North Korea. This huge size of Russia also brings some problems with it. 110 million Russians live in Europe, which is about ¾ of Russia’s entire population. This centralized power system means that the majority of decisions are made to protect the core of the country which is the area around the capital Moscow.
Historically the case of defending a country was different and Russia mainly relied on pure manpower. In the next few centuries, the Grand Duchy of Moscow quickly expanded and at the time of Ivan the terrible the Kingdom was spread in the east to the Urals, south to the Caucasus mountains, and the Carpathians in the west. Eventually, the independent Khanate of Siberia was also conquered. This means the core of Russia was seriously protected. Siberia itself is large enough that with the current technology almost no army can invade through it. The supply lines will have to be thousands of miles long through extreme conditions. Similarly, the other sides are also protected by water and mountains.
On average Russian living in the same latitude as Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Canada makes only $7,500 US a year. This is also due to the geographical location of Russia. Despite the 23 thousand miles of coastline, the country has no significant warm water ice-free ports to give them access to an ocean. This limitation in Maritime power means that it has no easy way to access the world's ocean all year. The freezing of the ports is also an issue but the other major issue is that the supply line is through major choke points controlled by NATO countries or their allies. For example, to pass from the port of St. Petersburg access through the straits of Denmark which is a NATO country.
Even after the separation of all its states after the division of the USSR. Russia holds strong political ties with the. However, in the past decades, Ukraine moved from an ally of Russia towards the central European powers. This means to have access to a warm water port of Sevastopol Russia has to invade Crimea. Apart from that recently Russia has overcome its economic challenges due to Oil and Natural gas as well. Russia provides about 40% of natural gas to all of Europe. This has helped them in making allies and solving some of its geographical problems.
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