What did Russia do to become a true European power

As sad as it might be, the truth is that the transition came under Stalin. Intensive industrialization under Joseph Stalin, of both Agriculture and the production of Machinery, led them into arms production and got them competitive on the World Stage ... it was Stalin who got them outdoing most of the Depression-hit Capitalist nations in the west.

But it came, of course, at a huge cost - thousands died from overwork, and massively unreasonable targets. Death and repression was the cost of such a speedy transition from poverty to power.

Russian-European Union relations are the international relations between the European Union (EU) and its largest bordering state, Russia, to the east.[1] The relations of individual member states of the European Union and Russia vary, though a 1990s common foreign policy outline towards Russia was the first such EU foreign policy agreed. Furthermore, four European Union-Russia Common Spaces are agreed as a framework for establishing better relations. The latest EU-Russia strategic partnership was signed in 2011,[2][3] but it was later challenged by the European Parliament in 2015 following the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass.