That's a great question.
I can paint you a very brief picture. The major changes in Russia, 10 years ago to now, and likely looking into the future, have been around the political attitudes in the Kremlin. I think they've made a series of decisions that have put them in a bit of a corner economically while attempting to advance their interests geopolitically.
Russia sees itself as being under threat. It sees itself as having been taken advantage of in the nineties, after the end of the Cold War. It believes and feels that it wasn't respected in that time and wasn't cut any slack and allowed to reform its economy. I think there's a real drive for respect. They want to be a great power. They want to be seen as being a great power. They become infuriated when they feel that their interests are not being taken into account, especially in the near abroad.
It's a difficult mindset. It makes it difficult to deal with them on a number of issues, because pride becomes involved. I think going forward it is an open question.
To answer your specific question about whether they can afford to continue doing what they're doing, the only answer I can give is this. So far, yes, but at a certain point, they are digging themselves a hole that they're going to have to come to grips with, just as the Soviet Union did. When that will occur and how they will react is something that I would have some difficulty speculating on.