Russia's economy doesn't seem as sturdy as all that; review recent events. You may find a book called _Collapse of Empire_ by Yegor Gaidar, a Russian economist

Russia's economy doesn't seem as sturdy as all that; review recent events. You may find a book called _Collapse of Empire_ by Yegor Gaidar, a Russian economist and briefly the prime minister, interesting. The argument is far too long to encapsulate, but briefly, an over reliance on resource extraction and export caused the collapse of the Soviet empire and continues to put the Russian empire at great risk. ps -- I briefly lived in Russia, found the majority of people there to be my kind of people, and am very bummed about the wave of xenophobia / nationalism / homophobia stoked by Putin to maintain political support. I think the state has the strong potential to do much better economically than resource extraction allows it to do.