I suspect as Obama hinted that Russia isn't as strong as they are made out to be. China and The USA are the two biggest players.
Russia is stronger than people think. According to Wikipedia: 'Russia is world's largest natural gas reserves, 8th largest oil reserves, 2nd largest coal reserves, world's leading natural gas exporter and second largest natural gas producer, largest oil exporter and the largest oil producer, 3rd largest electricity producer in the world and the 5th largest renewable energy producer, third largest grain exporter, 8th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the 6th largest by purchasing power parity,Russia is considered well ahead of most other resource-rich countries in its economic development, with a long tradition of education, science, and industry,higher proportion of higher education graduates than any other country in Eurasia,second most attractive personal tax system for single managers in the world after the United Arab Emirates, largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, second largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines and is the only country apart from the United States with a modern strategic bomber force, Russia's tank force is the largest in the world, its surface navy and air force are among the largest ones.' Europe relies to a large degree on Russian energy (russia doesn't need europe's money but europe needs russia's energy), Russia has one of the lowest national foreign debts, and most importantly: they have Putin. This guy just took Crimea without a fight, beat up PussyRiot on intl TV, and has basically told Obama to go screw himself with his sanctions (as in, we will quit using USD as reserve currency AND refuse to pay USD debts). Russia is a monster that is only getting stronger. Combine this with the ineptness of UN armed forces and the continued drawdown of US forces worldwide...Russia is emerging as THE superpower of the 21st century.
China has the potential of a billion people but lacks the military, technological know how, and energy resources to pose any real challenge to the US
at this moment in time. This could change incredibly fast and most likely will. The Chinese are shrewd. If they can avoid destroying themselves as they industrialize, China will be a force to be reckoned with.
As far as the US goes...it is infected with a plague of idiots going all the way to the top. America is a Philosophical wasteland (as in, the Philosophy of the nation as a whole and the individual people).
I do agree with you about where it ultimately leads.