That endless internal conflict of the soul has played out at least since the time of Peter the Great. Russia yearns to belong to civilized Europe but simultaneously harbors a deep fear that opening the door to the West means eventual betrayal by the West. Russia's latest incarnation as a nation is just 8 years old. It is in a state of becoming, but what is unclear. There is an underlying sense of marking time until the State Duma elections in December and the presidential election next summer and dark conspiracy theories about what might happen between now and then.
Problems immense Russia's problems are immense.
Much of the economy remains in a gray twilight of barter outside the reach of laws and the tax collector. The entire tax system is punitive and incoherent, the judicial system weak and not yet committed to the sanctity of contracts. Bureaucracies are casually corrupt. Crime is skyrocketing and public health declining. Oligarchs have looted the country of hundreds of billions.