The thing that Russia has keeping it relevant in the world is the remnants of the KGB, led by Putin (ex-KGB).

One leaked message sets out one of the goals of this kind of information warfare: helping Russia “maintain the image of a superpower” on the world stage. “The more Russia participates in active influence campaigns all over the world, the stronger the image of a global Russian power,” it reads.

Putin ran the FSB before the presidency, and the method here is Soviet active measures by another name. This article says one operator writes under the alias “Edward Bernays,” and the user whose screen the chats are seen from poses as “Kristin Kiler,” a nod to Christine Keeler of the Profumo affair. That is continuity of tradecraft from WWI, run out of the Kremlin office.

Information warfare is thus now the main claim to power status, playing Trump into destruction of the US and the UK into Brexit, regardless of tanks, missiles or even nukes.