andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> Interesting. This supports Perry Anderson's thesis in
> a recent London Review of Books survey that I liked
> and Chris Doss hated, that Russia's current relative
> prosperity is relative, basically a matter of having
> come from a place where it had nowhere to go but up,
> and that Russia has become converted from an
> industrial power in a platform for raw material
> exports.
This is very close to what the late Mark Jones predicted. He thought Russia would become the Africa of the 21st century -- an exaggeration, but one usually had to allow for some exaggeration on his part. All in all, he was pretty shrewd on Russia. And if a Russian government should slip badly (all governments have their bad times), Mark's full prediction is still a possibility.
Carrol