The report is a distillation of open source academic research and evaluations and not based on internal CSIS assessments.
It does however use stark language, and warned decision-makers not to treat Putin's rearmament drive lightly.
"Russia is not modernizing its military primarily to extend its capacity to pursue hybrid warfare," the 104 page report said, referring to the Kremlin's use of irregular tactics to take over Crimea. "It is modernizing conventional military capability on a large scale; the state is mobilizing for war."
The West has primarily responded to the annexation and Moscow's support of separatists in eastern Ukraine with economic sanctions.
The prevailing wisdom is that fiscal pain will bring Putin around, but the report dismissed that notion, saying two years after war erupted in Ukraine, the Kremlin "appears to be coherent, durable and united" at the centre.
"Western assessments that Russia is vulnerable to economic collapse and disruptive internal discontent are exaggerated," said the assessment, titled 2018 Security Outlook.
"Russia is adapting to adversity; the economy is deliberately tilted to security rather than economic freedom."
Hilary or Obama end they ass so we can call this a day.
