Russian economy was nowhere near the size of the American one in the real world. I grew up in late stage Communism; the only thing that the dying regimes were

Russian economy was nowhere near the size of the American one in the real world. I grew up in late stage Communism; the only thing that the dying regimes were reliably producing were impressive, and completely fraudulent, statistics. On paper, we were all economic tigers, but in the street, people queued in front of the shops whenever something rare, such as washing machines, was promised to be delivered. And the Soviet Union was even less developed than Czechoslovakia. Plus, the more developed regions like the Baltics didn't want to stay subjugated to Russia. Russia proper was underdeveloped. No surprise for a country whose access to the sea is limited and distances are absolutely vast. Such places tend to be underdeveloped everywhere - Kazakhstan, inner Congo, inner Brazil, Australian outback, even many places in the flyover US.