> China was the size of Russia's economy 20 years ago, now it's nearing ten times larger. ... As Russia's economy goes nowhere for the next decade... Something

> China was the size of Russia's economy 20 years ago, now it's nearing ten times larger. ... As Russia's economy goes nowhere for the next decade... Something doesn't add up here - why is Russia's economy so backward and heavily dependent on extractive industries in the first place? Yes they have a huge landmass which makes extractive industry comparatively easy and convenient, but so does Canada and nobody would describe the Canadian economy as anything less than highly developed and quite competitive. My guess is that there's no real reason why Russia couldn't start growing on a China-like path to ultimately be as highly-developed as the average Western country, and that the lack of any such growth is to do with short-term political stances, not any inherent or outside factors.