From The Saker:

You could say that [Putin’s] intention was to force the Empire to eventually enter the next, more constructive, three stages of grief: bargaining, depression, and acceptance…

Since WWII US Americans have killed many millions of people abroad, but when 9/11 came (nevermind that it was obviously a false flag) the country went into something like clinical shock from the loss of about 3’000 innocent civilians…

[A]ll the immense sums of money spent by the USA in ABM defenses have been completely wasted…

[T]he current force structure of the US surface fleet has also been made basically obsolete and useless…

All US military installations worldwide can now be attacked leaving the US very little or no reaction time…

In response to the conventional NATO threat from the West:

• Putin has ordered the re-creation of the First Guards Tank Army. This Tank Army will include two Tank Divisions (the best ones in the Russian military – 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division and the 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division), and a total of 500+ T-14 Armata tanks. This Tank Army will be supported by the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army (in progress). This will be what was called a “Shock Army” during WWII and the Cold War.
• The deployment of the Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system (completed)
• The doubling of the size of the Russian Airborne Forces from 36’000 to 72’000 (in progress).
• Creation of a National Guard: which will include troops of the Interior Ministry (about 170’000 soldiers), personnel from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the OMON riot police forces (about 40’000 soldiers), the SOBR rapid-reaction forces (about 5000+ soldiers), the Special Designation Center of the Operational Reaction Forces and Aviation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs including the Special Forces units “Zubr”, “Rys’” and “Iastreb” (about 700+ operators) for a total of about 250’000 soldiers which will probably reach the 300’000 men figure in the near future.
• The procurement and deployment of advanced multi-role and air superiority fighters and interceptors (MiG-31BM, Su-30SM, Su-35S and, soon, the MiG-35 and Su-57).
• Deployment of S-400 and S-500 air defense systems along with very long range radars.
• The adoption of about 70% of new, modern, systems across all the armed forces.

In response to the ABM “encirclement” of Russia by the USA:

• The deployment of the RS-28 Sarmat ICBM with hypersonic maneuverable reentry vehicles
• The deployment of conventionally armed very long-range cruise missiles
• The deployment of a nuclear powered cruise missile with a basically unlimited range
• The deployment of a nuclear powered unmanned submersible with intercontinental range, very high speed, silent propulsion and capable of moving a great depths
• The deployment of the Mach 10 hypersonic missile Kinzhal with a 2’000 kilometer range
• The deployment of a new strategic missile Avangard capable of Mach 20 velocities

From Auslander in the comments:

The harbinger of what was to come was clearly and openly shown in the Kaliber missile strike from the little Russian Caspian Sea Flot on 07 October of 2015. The West had never paid any attention to that little fleet of river ships until those little ships, which can maneuver all the way up the rivers to well within range of Europe, unleashed a rain of 26 missiles from 1500 kilometers away on targets in Syria during which ever single missile, none of which were detected by US/nato regime surveillance assets over Syria at the time, landed within 5 meters of its target.

On 20 September 2016 the C&C hub of nato regimes against President Assad and Syria positioned in the rugged terrain near Mt. Simeon, located in a blind narrow gorge supposedly immune from air attack, was hit by three Kalibr missiles and obliterated along with the entire staff of American, Israelis and Saudis. Reports are the missiles literally flew right in the ‘front door’ and were fired from Russian Flot ships in the Med.

Another clear message was sent to US/nato regimes in April of 2014, 12 April to be exact. An unarmed Dry 24 flew over the US light cruiser (they call it a ‘destroyer’) Cook in the Black Sea. Cook is equipped with the latest Aegis location and defense missile systems plus offensive missile systems in abundance. The Aegis System detected the Dry at range and then went totally dead, the system could not operate in any way, ergo the system could not provide vector and fire coordinates to the ‘defensive’ missiles on the Cook or the offensive Tomahawk missiles with which the Cook is equipped. The Dry was equipped only with the Khibiny Electronic Warfare system, the ordinance mount points under his wings were empty for all to see, and proceeded to make battle turns and simulated missile attacks on the Cook ten or more times.