.... despite [Russia's] Olympic prowess, its military budget, and its achievements in space—representing, as it turned out, hideously misplaced priorities and obscene malinvestments of resources—this was not a first rate civilization we had been in mortal contention with since the close of World War II, but a Third World national culture strained to the breaking-point in its deadly competition with us, and doomed to collapse eventually under its own weight. The real Russia was a starving goat dressed up in a cocktail dress....