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And with a GNP rise last year of 7.7% and an educated population, Russia is far better poised to make strides, yea leaps, than Indonesia or Brazil.
At the time of the Czarist collapse, Russia was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, producing steel for rail expansion (and associated coal) faster than anyone in the world. It even had a legal system due for enactment (and in which Putin was schooled by Sobchak) similar to those used in Europe. Russia could also feed itself and then some, which it managed to do last year too. Russians are planning to run the Trans-Siberian railway into N and S Korea. They're clearing the land mines between those two countries as I write to prepare track bed.
With 2,000 BMWs being produced in Kalinigrad, Ford going in with a $150m investment, and now General Motors; with a flat tax at the most attractive rate in Europe and land reform scheduled for this year, you'd better rethink your race track prognostications on how fast and when.
Putin said it would take 15 years at rates of growth below last year's Russia-growth to come up to Spain and Portugal. Those two are members of the EU community. I don't know how long you plan on living, but I plan on being around for 15 years and Spain and Portugal are nice places. Spain and Portugal have also been dictatorships in my lifetime and yours too. They may not be Costa Mesa but they're nicer than a host of places I can think of in the US.
The US needs Caspian oil and gas. There's even talk of a NATO clone to run a security system in the region while NATO and the Russians get their acts together. It pays to be on good terms with Russia. Look for joint action between the US and Russia on Osama Ben Laden coming to a security operation near you.
Your particular operation may not be capable of exploiting Russian hydrocarbons but there are plenty that are. Just take it from Churchill: "Russia is never as strong as she seems; nor as weak as she seems." Last time I looked at Hurricane Hydrocarbons, they were doing fine.
You can pick out the leaders. They're the ones with the arrows in their butts. Keep your Saab seat heater on. It sounds as if you don't want to take any arrows.
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