As for Russia, there’s not much you can do against a good player. Don’t spread yourself thin and don’t let your forces get divided and conquered. For the most part buy inf plus art as needed. In order to maximize Russia’s income (and especially if your opponent declares on G2), think about trying to capture as many +3 NOs (Iraq, Libya, Ethiopia, and there’s 2 more in Africa) as possible. To achieve this, it’s a good idea to buy some additional mech/tanks on Russia 1 and take NW Persia on R2, Iraq on R3, and so on.