Many in the United States seem to have been lulled into a sense of complacency and smug superiority

The final puzzle piece for now is Russian arms sales, which both provide welcome hard cash inflows into the Russian economy and help to bolster Russia’s friends, notably Iran and Venezuela, and stave off any regional instability. Many in the United States seem to have been lulled into a sense of complacency and smug superiority by the collapse of the Soviet Union, and believe that the United States is now invincible. Nothing could be farther from the truth.