Is Russia on its way back to superpower status?
Russia has definitely been asserting itself on the global stage — from supporting Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, to its alleged involvement in the election of Donald Trump.
And while some say it's all part of Putin's plans to make Russia great again, foreign policy and strategy consultant Molly McKew says it's not about Russia, it's actually about making America weaker.
"It is to dismantle NATO. It is to weaken the possibilities of American power in the world," McKew tells The Current's guest host Connie Wallker.
"And it is to disrupt the relationships, and the sort of liberal world order, and the Western alliance that they view as a threat to their possibilities of power."
McKew says that what Russia was trying to achieve in the U.S. election was deepening the divides in our society.
To Bessma Momani, senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Russia is not a great power.
"Russia is about as powerful as Italy. And with all due respect to Italy, it's not a great economic power."
"The Americans have nearly doubled the capability of the Russians in terms of military whether we're talking hardware — we're not even talking spending — we're talking capability," Momani tells Walker.
There is no great Russia, Momani says, but this is the myth president Putin has been trying to recreate because "it sells, because the Russian people need it."
"You know this is a great power that once was … and has crumbled significantly in the past two decades and how to retrieve that is by being the one that can penetrate into the American electoral system, by being the one that can make the Americans quiver in Syria," says Momani.
Russian-American journalist and author of The Putin Mystique Anna Arutunyan tells Walker Russia's central weakness is how they see themselves.
"This is in part the reason why Russia's leaders and especially Putin at this point have had to compensate this lack of national identity with some myths of greatness."
Arutunyan says the easiest thing to do right now is promote the myth that Russia is meddling in everything.
"Russia increasing its leverage via Syria. Russia increasing its leverage via meddling in the U.S. elections, and proving to the world that we were right all along, that the world is a really bad place," says Arutunyan.
"But domestically, what that is a symptom of is really a lot of emptiness in terms of what unites Russia as a people."
The Current requested an interview with the Russian embassy but no one was available.
Listen to the full segment at the top of this web post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Lara O'Brien.