Kazakhstan is not far enough to cause panic. Does Putin think testing balistic missiles in this era still scares anyone? North Korea has been playing that game and the world keeps ignoring it!

my observations is that USA has had a long-term game plan for Russia since the cold war. To slowly and reduce the power of Russia.

First introduce them to democracy which to a Russian historically has never had any experience in. we all saw the fiasco of President Yeltsin.

secondly introduce market reforms to disorient their market models. that created oligarchs and dire poverty forcing the Russian elites to choose Putin ( this was unexpected and didn't work for the west.)

thirdly reduce their (Russian) influence diplomatically. make it seem that whatever the wanted or did was wrong. this is working.
They have reduced the Russians diplomatic power to an extent the USA is able to walk all over Russian supporters with the blessing of the pro west countries. Libya, Syria etc.

Putin knows this, his people know this, they inherited a country that used to be a super power.
it was in chaos both politically and economically. crime was high, inflation was biting hard, terrorism etc.

Putin needed first to put the country in order and regain its economic independence, then the military power would come later. They didn't plan or have time to plan a counter attack to the USA's game plan.

The USA noticed this and took advantage and have consistently undermined Russia.

It has worked. Russia has been busy in Georgia ,Ukraine, Chechenya, Syria etc.

The USA has them where they want them. even the invasion of the Crimea has worked in their favour. They are slowly isolating Russia and making it a one country state without the previous satellite states.

That is all it will be.. a draft.

In the international system, those who can do, but the critical factor is that each player should align himself with the power movements of the 21st century. Like we are moving into a multipolar system where power is going to be distributed more evenly with time such that mutual and creative solutions will be the order of the day. Other power relations will crumble in failure.

So I pity the likes of Putin and Obama with their dying horse kicks. They don't even have a credible idea and philosophy that can animate the nations like in the past.

It's like being in the relay team and running in the opposite direction, then hoping your team can win the race.