Russia’s economy is based mainly on two things- her ability to harvest and sell raw or barely-processed materials, and the manufacture-and-export of cheap weapons to dictatorial countries. She does not really have an economy, and what she does have is riddled with open corruption that stunts organic growth from her citizens or foreign investors, as there is no real way to guarantee any secure investment because it could be “legally” robbed at an instant.
The state of the Russian economy is so bad that according to one expert, not only private investors, but even the Russian government does not want to invest in Russia’s economy.
In 2020, in Russia, amid falling demand and uncertainty, there is no need to wait for a surge in private investment, said Daniel Grigoriev , an economic analyst at the Institute for Globalization and Social Movements .
“Hopes can be attributed solely to a surge in private investment, but why should the private sector, when demand and uncertainty fall, start investing in the domestic economy at the same time, if the state itself doesn’t do this?” Says Grigoryev. “Regarding national projects, their low efficiency is not a consensus. among the opposition, as among many experts and officials. There are several reasons for this. ”
According to Grigoriev, national projects are not only some separate projects. Often these are budget investments repackaged under a new brand that were already planned in advance, and their volumes are often very modest – so
“The six-year program of labor productivity growth across the country does not even reach 70 billion rubles,” the expert said. (source)
Russia is a strong nation, but she is not that strong. She is weak and in serious decline that she is trying to stop by taking a variety of approaches, but none seem to be working. At this point, it would seem that it would take a miracle to turn her situation around.