During the 90s and somewhat into the new millennium Russia was a basket case, both militarily (though they had nukes) and economically. Putin changed all that. He is a true statesman in the oldschool sense of the word*, unlike most if not all of our political "leaders" over the past decade or so. He's turned the economy around, and while true that it is heavily focused on fossil fuels then that does not diminish their economic power. They have a stranglehold over the EU when it comes to gas, and after the opening of the new Russo-China oil pipeline can fuel China's economy too to a large extent. Russia's military has undergone a dramatic transformation and modernization under Putin with new weaponsystems and such being unveiled almost monthly.
Also, while Russia does not have the naval forces to compare with the US, its missile systems are to be feared. It is generally regarded that Russia's anti-ship, anti-air (both for fighters and ICBMs) and it's strategic nuclear rocket forces are world leaders. Back in the late 70's-early 80's Russia realised that it could never match the US carrier for carrier so they started to develop other ways to combat the US's carrier fleets and this lead to their supersonic, highly manoeuvrable anti-ship missile systems. The US has no counter towards them. Similarly the Russian S-300 missile system that Syria and Iran have are very, very capable systems, and the new S-400 is rumoured to have anti-stealth and anti-ICBM capabilities too.
Therefore, in hindsight, it seems highly portentous of Israel to have destroyed Syrias stockpile of newly acquired Yakhont anti-ship missiles during their strike on Latakia back in July. The only question is whether they managed to destroy them all, and whether Russia will simply use Syria as a proxy or use it's own fleet and anti-ship missiles to target US ships. If so, then prepare to lose a carrier or two!
