[vkazanov]

Well... about that hard place. At some point it was the Commonwealth that dominated the region. A Polish Prince could have kicked off a Russian tzar dynasty:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Władysław_IV_Vasa

Unfortunately, this was completely mismanaged by prince's father and, transitively, the Pope, who saw this as a great possibility to expand Rome's rule in the region.

[inglor_cz]

True, most people don't realize that Russia was, from the European point of view, a non-entity for much of its history. The country was big, but very poor and underdeveloped.

Only in the 1700s Russia starts to emerge as a serious contender in European power struggles.