>The USSR satellites were radically better off apart from Soviet Russia. Well, no. Latvia is experiencing huge population drain and is being called "disappeari

>The USSR satellites were radically better off apart from Soviet Russia. Well, no. Latvia is experiencing huge population drain and is being called "disappearing nation" [0], Estonia is not much better, and different -stans are slowly going back to the middle ages (I personally visited Uzbekistan for 2 weeks and witnessed it with my own eyes. It's not pretty). I'm not saying that they were thriving under Soviet Union, obviously not, but you can hardly find a former USSR republic which shows stable growth in GDP per capita, population, and, say, ease of doing business. [0] https://www.politico.eu/article/latvia-a-disappearing-nation-migration-population-decline/ https://www.politico.eu/article/latvia-a-disappearing-nation... EDIT: oh, i'm stupid. you were speaking about sattelites meaning not parts of former USSR, but Eastern Block. Your point stands.