The struggle for independence tried to reverse this trend but was brutally thwarted by the Suharto dictatorship. His more than 30 years of rule helped set the conditions for foreign investors lured by the wealth and cheap labor and the huge population for goods. This in turn encouraged economic growth but with the country remaining largely underdeveloped and millions of people impoverished. What caused the Russian Submarine to sink to the bottom of Barents Sea, killing 118 crew members, remains unknown. But the discussions about the accident, together with the burning of the Russian TV tower, have served to remind the World about the crisis facing Russians more than ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rest of the Stalinist governments in Eastern Europe.
News reports say the infrastructure throughout the land is collapsing.
Roads, railways and other equipment are in a state of neglect. Television Reports showed soldiers begging in the streets of Moscow. While the top officials are doing alright like in old days, the rank and file of soldiers are worse off today than ten years ago. The rest of the population is not fairing better either. Although promises of western investments have been made umpteen times, no news factories or plants are being built.