> but most everything else is being wasted and no one seems to care there. It’s a slow degradation. To be fair, a lot of their population does care and has not

> but most everything else is being wasted and no one seems to care there. It’s a slow degradation. To be fair, a lot of their population does care and has noticed that Putin has failed to deliver on his promises. They're aware that their income / standard of living is facing a decade plus decline (they're on year seven of that now). In the past good times Putin utilized the oil price boom to very aggressively consolidate his power, install a new authoritarian system, wipe out a lot of human rights and all free press. Now he's formally dictator for life. He was busy while the people were enjoying the momentary prosperity that the oil boom brought. Pretty fucked up frankly, the Russian people get a moment's reprieve from a century of horrors, and another dictator uses that time as a distraction to hijack their brand new, fragile democracy. Now they're trapped and from everything I've read, they're largely aware of it. They see what's happening to their standard of living gains. And up to recently they've had pretty easy outside access to the Internet and what's true or not true (which is why Runet has often been filled with anti-state and anti-Putin memes). The problem is: once a system like that is installed, and the python begins to squeeze, how can you do anything about it? Short of armed, massive, violent revolution. The Russian state won't allow protests, whatever force is used against them, they're capable of and willing to responding with far greater force.