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If one listens to Peter Zeihan, the war was motivated by Russia's long-term unenviable defensive position: there are virtually no geographical barriers within the Russian heartland, and with population set to fall, defending Russia is an expensive proposition (young men in productive economic activity or in civil defense; pick one). Hence all the wars since the early 2000s to reunite Russia with strategic and defensible passes that were part of the USSR: these can be garrisoned at much lower manpower, leaving the heartland to economic activity.
Or if one listens to such Russian writers as Alexandr Dugin, rejection of Western hegemony and reconquering of Soviet nations is just part of the Great Geopolitcal Game.
Defending Russia is purely a matter of being willing to absolutely nuke any enemy battlegroup on your own soil. Nobody can object to you dumping a hundred megatons on invaders on your own soil.
Maintaing a nuclear arsenal is expensive, but doable for a nation of that size.
The reality is often not quite simple, especially if you are a ridiculously multi-ethnic country like Russia with enemies very willing and capable to arm a myriad of groups with some grudge against you. Even if any Russian leader was this naive, they were surely shaken out of it by the time of the Chechen wars.
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