"Been around long enough" is a lot less time than the mindless Putinist parroting of "1000 years of institutional knowledge of war". That "long enough" has existed only since the Muscovite princes got rid of their Mongol overlords in the mid to late 15th century. Before then they were tribute collecting vassals, not an independent state with "deep, institutional knowledge of war" since Muscovy was little more than an enlarged city state subordinate to Novgorod and the Golden Horde. You're indulging in teleological fantasy that's nothing more than Putin parroting about Russia's destiny. All nations indulge in this mythologizing of their past; Brexiteer Britons see Dunkirk in Agincourt. And this kind of mythologized history is always nonsense. That's the point of Tim Snyder's course: demythologized history. He says that Russia's future is for the Russian peoples to decide and that outsiders will have precious little influence on the outcome, as in 1917-21 and 1989-91.