I mean the USSR was easily on par with the US early on in the space race, then a combination of a much inferior economy and corruption took its toll.

As for their military tech, it wasn't necessarily on par with the US all the time, but they had a very decent defense industry. Meanwhile all Russia can do is design super weapons like the T14 and then execution flops so bad im they become memes among military and defense bloggers.

To say nothing of the much much smaller sphere of influence Russia has today compared to peak Soviet Union.