i am not sure how USSR can be rival to West except for North Korea type approach of threats with no connections.The critical difference is that today, the west is no longer seeking to destroy Russia as a country to eliminate a potential challenger and rival, as it was against the USSR.
Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey and Iran. All 4 states were aligned with West and they have ideological influence that made USSR ineffective. it can be manipulation of oil prices to scientific base moving to West which cannot happen without Israel.
now all these 4 states are either neutral or cooperating on various levels with Russia. in addition there is ideological transformation of Russia where Orthodox Christianity and Islam is its core. They are basically handing over Ukraine to Southern Military district. it will take time to enlarge size of this district but ultimately it will these people that will control it. while the Russians from North will concentrate more on Canada. All that arctic military transformation is for that purpose.