Sure, Russia has the ingredients to be prosperous. What Russia lack is management and the competitive environment that comes with it and most importantly the political structure that supports a fair and competitive economic environment.
At the minute, easiest and the fastest way to make a million is to get to politics or secret device. The other path is corruption. Whoever get to the ranks of the army or local government is presented with easy millions by the inherently corrupt system.
Corruption starts at the top with Putin. He made his multi-billions and got his support base to earn theirs. Recently multibillionaire KSB boss Patrushev appointed his son to the position of Agricultural minister and Putins best friend multi billionaire Kovalchuk got his younger brother to the position of Science boss and the list goes on. Corruption being passed onto the next generation.
Sure, Russia has the ingredients to be prosperous if they can get a management culture working under fair politics. For that, it has to change drastically starting with Putin. Else he will keep sending Russian's to the slaughterhouse just to safeguard their billions.
