Dont think the USA or the west could afford another war atm. Our economic situation over here in the UK is quickly going down the drain to. The "big players" in the world are allways playing games with each other, and Russia now wants its "international player status" back and besides that the Russian economic situation is far better than ours and its geting better.
Russia holds the world's largest natural gas reserves, the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. Russia is also the world's largest exporter of natural gas, the second largest oil exporter and the third largest energy consumer.
The natural resources is something that the UK and most of the west does not have
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/Russia/Background.html
I think in the not to far future they will be one of the major powers along side China and the USA