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My "operation" has succeded in exploiting gas and oil from the former USSR. I was on the legal side of a Chevron-BP-Mobil-Gazpom joint venture, that, aside from deepwater drilling near Sakhalin, has come off. Gazpom, and the Russian government, only had their hands out, looking for bribes and favors. Cost of doing business.
My mother was a World Bank type during the 80's and early 90's, and when Russia began accepting IBRD money for project finance, off went mom. She was optomistic at first, but as the reality of the Russian mindset sunk in, well, she quit the Bank to teach economics.
I believe that your data re: Russian Tzarist economic expansion, while being correct, is relative to the size of the population, and must be seen in the context of autocracy, meaning simply that w/o democratic contraints great sacrafices may be squeezed from a populace, unacceptable to a democratic society. Further, it is like the great strides made by LDC's upon industrialization. Remember when the ROK and Japan were poised to dominate world economics and finance? Paul Kennedy's books "Decline of teh Great Powers". Japan and Korea's inherint structural and cultural flaws, not revealed by the impressive growth in GDP/GNP, have discredited the forcast paradigm shift.
I'm not saying Russia has no value to business. It has an educated, cheap labor force, ripe for exploitation, and natural resources of all kinds. But history, and personal experience, lead me to believe that Russia is, and will always be, the sick man of Europe, taking Turkey's spot.
Don't take offense, really. I base my opinion not on Chauvinism or Cold War training, but rather on my experiences, education and those of my friends and family who deal with Russia.
But, write it off for now, except in terms of security. And don't buy the lip service of Russia allowing ANY Western troops or out of region forces into its periphial states, or the ring of fire, as its known. They paid for that land in blood in the 1860 and are doing so now in Chechnaya, Ingushetia, etc. They will not allow any one to intrude their sphere of influence.
Rasputin.
(I don't give my name because my employer would not like my views expressed, as they could reflect upon them).
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