Quote (Pari @ 31 Aug 2022 17:34)
True but how is this a better place now? Like usual only a small group of people benefit from this. The rest of the world saw their subsidy and aid dissapear.
Your side note resonates with nearly everyone in the world - that Gorbachev is a hated man. I guess only Liberals and other rich people like him.
The economic collapse of the Soviet Union was already baked in in 1985 when Gorbachev took over. And at least the Russian middle class was, after a dip in living standard during the 90s, better off than they were in the 80s after some point in the 00s. The same could have been true for wider segments of the Russian population if not for Putin and his cronies robbing the country blind AND not doing anything to diversify its economy.
Russia has a steady stream of revenue and capital from commodity sales at its disposal, they could have used them to fuel a broader, more diversified economy that would have lifted up the entire country. They could have gone a similar way like Poland, which has seen rapid growth and is on track to become a net tax payer in the EU by 2027. With commodity revenue in Russia's case playing the role that EU structure funds played for Poland, Russia could have taken the same path. But yachts and dreams of restoring his lost empire were more important to Putin.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 31 2022 09:47am