Originally Posted by
Rockie_Rapier
That a land so huge and rich in natural resources can be managed so incompetently is quite tragic (One wonders if the citizens of Moscow are really looking back on the USSR as the good old times.)But in a sense it's not news to find that a land full of riches doesn't need a functional democracy or a civil service uncorrupt or even a military that operates within the terms of international law and doesn't use extreme abuse to maintain the authority of it's middle ranks.
Such niceties are not needed, nations based on fossil and mineral can make a living quite nicely without needing to equitably educate it's workforce, without the need for democratic checks and balances to, eventually, restore order and competence to the running of the nation.
Russia's economy has been compared to those resource-rich nations in Africa. All that easy money tends to go to their heads.