Russia's systemic failures, significant as they are, will never be enough to displace their status as one of, if not, the best foreign intelligence operators. At least, not as long they're the Russian Federation.

That's not because they're magic, smarter, or genetically predisposed to being great spies. It's a function, or symptom, of their empire and how they cobbled it together with so many diverse and divergent ethnic groups, cultures, and religions.

America is a melting pot that forms a singular monoculture, more or less, but Russia is literally different nations stitched together from Europe to the opposite end of the Asian continent. It's kept together through the immense effort of their internal security services....and the occasional indiscriminate bombing campaign, but primarily their internal security services.

The continuation of the Russian empire necessitates the mass production of people for their internal security services, who also then just happen to have the same skill sets required for covert foreign intelligence work. So it's not really surprising why they excell at it, and will continue to for the foreseeable future.