poland was only momentarily a russian puppet, and all the poles' aggressive energies had only ever been directed towards the east. in dismantling poland she gained malorussia and white russia, which served a far more important long-term strategic purpose for russia than even her lauded crimean conquests. the only reason russia was able to avoid conquest by the menacing coalitions of european powers in 1812, 1914, and 1941 was because catherine created such a massive buffer zone by dividing poland. as to prussia, i don't think anyone could foresee its future success in unifying germany, as this was a shock even to europeans living at the time of the franco-prussian war, and german nationalism was unheard of in catherine's time.
United States