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"Little if any innovation or creativity?
Gimme a break. The Russians were first into space, first with a space station, and won some solid component of Nobel Prizes over the years and you're friend's saying, (or at least implying) they're a write-off, even as GM puts some of its own and some European Bank of Reconstruction and Redevelopment money into plant there?
I guess it's a little scary then for the Euros who get 42% of their natural gas from Russia. Do they liquify it and haul it out in Lada Nivas or mules to the Euros or just exactly how does that work?
I know what's gone on in the past. Nobody wants or needs to go there very often to recognize they got off to a bad re-start in 1917 or so. I don't accept that rule before, under the Csars, was all that bad. Things were set to improve (and were, in fact, improving) just as the revolution hit.
You can't tell me Russians are wired differently; not after I read "The Millionaire Next Door where it tells me there are more millionaires per capita in Russian immigrant stock in the US than any other orginating nationality. Second come the Scots and third the Hungarians.
Your buddy best look beyond the stories and into some other kinds of glass- half-full realities. Sure, there's work to do, but there's also the fact that if you want cheap gasoline for your Saab, you'd better get used to the idea some significant portion of the hydrocarbons necessary to extend supply at reasonable prices will come from Russia and countries under Russia's influence and inhabited by Russians in that part of the world.
Sorry, I don't place knowledge of how to run a business or extract taxes very high on "innovation". But I do treasure the rule of law and the stability it has lent our system over the years and I think the Russians do too. It will take time. Meanwhile, GM knows Russians will need to get around and like Macdonalds, which counts Russian outlets among its most lucrative, will seel product and make money. Mark my words.
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