Russia is in decline due to the same reasons the USSR declined and fell. The costs of communist oligarchs taking the products of their 'slaves' and wasting them

Russia is in decline due to the same reasons the USSR declined and fell. The costs of communist oligarchs taking the products of their 'slaves' and wasting them on assorted diseconomies with not enough production feedback. There is a joke where Ivan says to Modred in Mpscow, "you know that after the next 5 year plan we will all have our own personal aircraft?", Modred then says "Excellent, if we hear they have matches (or toilet paper) in Vladivostok, we can fly there and be first in line!). Now Putin has imposed a from of the same system that 'overtaxes' by kleptocratic means essentially all the growth the current free 'slaves' create. Thus the amount of work product (money, stuff etc) each of these 'slaves' has at their disposal decreases every year. This is well documented in unofficially reported economic aspects of life. The reported ones are glorious. Military expenditure is essentially a complete waste of money, as it is in the USA, however the USA bears it more easily from it's far far larger base. China is the bear in tha dark that China is readying it's military for - they have nothing to fear from the USA but fear itself. China fears the assembled warheads Russia has - against which it has no defence. Sure it can bomb Russia back, but Russia has it's nor-so-secret cobalt submarines.https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a24216/pentagon-confirm-russia-submarine-nuke/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a24216/pen... a few dozen of these could devastate and dender into death zones for 100 years large swathes of China. This will make China think twice about expanding into the Russian far East. Russia has a population in serious decline. Only the Moslem areas are growing. Other Russians are in a devastating decline https://www.fairplanet.org/story/simply-math-no-russians-by-2200/ https://www.fairplanet.org/story/simply-math-no-russians-by-..., So why does Putin not change? He has the classic Tiger by the tail problem. He and his fellow oligarchs have beggared the Russian economy - how does he unbeggar it? He can not. He can only hand on until he is inevitably devoured by the tiger - or his own friends when he tries to rein them in!