Funny, at $1.6 trillion, Russia’s GDP is 1/8 of the US. Their population is less than half the US. Perhaps they can become the new “oil ticks” for Europe which would gain them money for crumbling infrastructure. But they still have to figure out how to avoid becoming a suburb of China in the next 50 years.

I say all this to remind folks that Russia is a shrinking former super power and that much of the common thinking seems to be framed in the cold-war era. Russia isn’t a “bear”, it is an old dog. Toothless and arthritic.