Russian’s paranoia is more than invaders sweeping across the step. The only good pieces of land where crops can be grown are now in other countries. The waterways south make it possible for those countries to export their products, notably agricultural products, south for significantly more money than the Russians can pay. The Russian currency has never had much value in comparison to the western currencies. This is just one of the many factors the Russians are concerned with. There’s just no good reason for anyone to actually live in Russia. The weather is bad. The economy sucks. The ability to make the land produce anything usable is limited. A survey of their population indicated an eye-popping percentage of their young people want to immigrate out of the frozen waste. Russia is like a drowning swimmer; dangerous to everyone. I’m not saying it’s necessary to give in to them, but I do think it’s necessary to take a realistic view of the situation. As you mentioned, they have the largest stock of nukes. This is not an easy situation for the most brilliant statesman of the ages. We have Biden. God help us.
Russia has plenty of arable land to more than feed their own population. They’ve been inviting farmers from South Africa to start up farms there, which is probably a step up from carrying on living in under that racist communist ANC regime.
https://www.rt.com/business/432375-russia-south-africa-farmers/