The big factor was the corruption and incompetence of the Russian military and political leadership. They hid it from Vlad, and so hid it from western intelligence agencies with connections at the top, they were reading the same lies as Vlad. They didn't even know they were this bad and it came as a bigger shock to Vlad than many in the west! Just depending on the top layers of their government was a mistake, since they were lied to by those below them and on it went down to the junior officers and troops selling off equipment online. Not just their army was so corrupt as to render it near useless, the air force and navy were worse, since they depend on technology more than the army. There was no Russian air force to speak of and pilots were untrained, and equipment poorly maintained. The Navy was being sunk by a country with no navy of its own to speak of and are largely driven from the western Black Sea.
Russia is surrounded many enemies and has no friends, just deals with North Korea, China and Iran, birds of a feather stick together.