Interesting article... to which I would reply lets look at the points listed in the article and think about them for a moment...
"the language coming from the Russian military reflects the mindset and actions characteristic of direct challenge and confrontation with NATO."
And why would that be... could it possibly be because:
It is naval capability focused directly on addressing the perceived advantages of NATO navies. And they are signaling us and warning us that the maritime domain is contested.
So they are stating to NATO that NATO does not own the maritime domain uncontested any more... is that a bad thing per say?
"They have talked about establishing a permanent presence in the Mediterranean and in breaking out from their perceived military encirclement by NATO military structures, economic sanctions and political isolation."
Perceived? Really?
NATO broke off communication and NATO and EU countries started imposing economic sanctions to punish Russia for claimed crimes that are still to be proven.
Russia is repeatedly blamed as being the number one or two threat to the world according to the President of the US.
It seems Russia was supposed to capitulate and just give in to western demands... instead it just turned east to countries it has largely neglected in trying to be friends with NATO and the west.
Now that it knows the west just wants drones perhaps in the future ties wont be that close ever again so a strong Navy and Army and Air Force remain a priority because when push comes to shove the west only helps when its own interests are involved... a slaughter in Rwanda is ignored, while terrorists in Kosovo offers a chance to get revenge on the Serbs for being friendly with the Russians and everyone mobilises for that conflict.
Of course the most amusing thing is:
"First, we must in training at the high end of warfighting skill.
We are too used to fighting poorly equipped third world countries and need to spend more money to fight second world countries.... going to be more expensive...
Second, forces must be on call for real world operations.
They might not give us enough warning... despite listening to everyones phone calls and electronic communications we still didn't know about those polite men, or the air power of Russia moving to Syria, or now the Russian Navy dealing with our terrorists in Syria... perhaps they wont tell us in the future when they are doing stuff so we have to be ready all the time.... which of course will be expensive...
"And third, we must invest to pace the growing Russian capabilities."
The US alone has 13 carrier groups with super carriers at their core but we need to spend more money to increase our capabilities to match Russias tiny pathetic rusting fleet we keep laughing at publicly.... that is going to cost some money... especially at a time when Britain and France can barely afford the single carriers they currently have or have planned.