The problem of Mearsheimer and other Western idiots who teach Eastern Europe how to deal with Russia is that they’ve never been to Russia, and if they were, they never stick their nose out of Moscow.
I’ve been going there for 20 years and I saw Russia and Ukraine from inside, including rural and provincial towns.
Here’s how a typical provincial Russia looks like and this is precisely why nobody except for very poor Tadjiks want to move there. In addition to wasting your car’s suspension, you can be killed by a random speeding jeep and in the court it will be “your fault” because it was driven by a son of local official or mafia boss.