No Future for Russian Power?

razorsharp
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:44:18 +0000

The real question is why is Putin actling like such a jackass. I suspect it is because of his ego. He longs for the good old days when Russia was a power that could do things to annoy the west and get away with it. He longs for the time when Russia controlled what are now independent states. Putin has destroyed the free press in Russia. He has destroyed the rule of law by stealing from businesses. The only reason he can get away with it is because Russia is wealthy in terms of resources.

I would not write off Russia so quickly. The falling population can be fixed easily. Russia has a flat income tax which is vastly superior to the US tax approach of penalizing those who work the harest. Russia has no debt. Russia has almost unlimited resources to power its economy.