I have this historical opinion (based on books read, lectures in college, my profession for 20-odd years, and various podcasts I've watched)....that Russia (before Lenin, under the Czar), the USSR (Lenin-to-Stalin-onto-Gorbachev), and Russia since the 1990s....has always been a 'bluff'.
Some news guy might even coin the term 'mother-of-a-all-bluffs' and probably be somewhat accurate.
When you go back to the start of the industrial age (mid-1700s to 1914)....Russia did progress like the UK, France and England....but the great scale and population spread....made any advancement haphazard.
When you gauge world industrial power (Wiki piece), Russia under the Czar in the late 1800s, held 3.4-percent of the industry....while the US stood at 28.6-percent, Germany at 13.9-percent, and France at 8.6-percent.
When you go to the 1900 era, the US and Germany bump up a notch....while Russia stood at 5-percent.
Around 1913, Russia had stepped up only a notch at 5.3-percent.
Why the lack of advancement? Mostly because of things spread out. Imagine a country that has 42 California's. They didn't have a canal system, or railroad system that could tie things into a nice 'bundle'.
Going into WW I? The Czar mostly ran a bluff that he had the capability to take on Germany.
As USSR came to exist....Lenin and Stalin ran their own versions of the bluff.
Hitler invading the Soviet Union and the military strength of portrayed at x-level? It was another bluff.
The Soviet advancement from 1943 to 1945 into Germany? Mostly because of the weak nature of Germany existing at that point. It wasn't a overwhelming Soviet Army.....it was simply that Germany had reached a point by 1943 where it was not going to mount any offensive and defensive measures would be marginal at best.
From the 1950s to 1980s? The bluff continued for the Soviet Union.
As the things started to fall apart in the 1985 to 1989 period....the bluff scattered into pieces and could not be carried at the size and nature intended.
Trying to be this capitalistic society from the 1990s on? Well....with the Oligarch folks in the middle of things....it was a masterful bluff.
The 20 years of Putin? Year after year, the bluff was played out and state-run TV helped to advance the idea to Russians that things were somewhat real. If you believed in the bluff...you just grinned and quietly put on your skeptical hat as a Russian. You certainly didn't challenge the bluff.
The great Russian military machine fighting the terrible Nazis of Ukraine? It was a five-star bluff moment. As the weeks passed, the impression of the Russian Conscript Army? They weren't really trained or equipped for the mission required. The tanks had defects when they left the factory ten years ago, and had been accepted 'as-is'. The tactics were all from the 1970s/1980s era, and never challenged because of the bluff strategy. Conscripts lacking normal gear that a German or Brit soldier would expect in a war-time environment? Well....that was a bluff as well.
So, here's the thing.....Russian society has been conditioned over three centuries to accept some form of a bluff, and it's tied into their mentality. Maybe half of society laughs over Putin, but it's the bluff that matters, and he dishes out a terrific bluff.
What's left now? I don't think there is a detox or rehab for bluff consumed people. If there was....I'd send Putin over for six weeks to get 'cleaned-up'. Obviously, getting over the bluff for Russians....is going to be a rough period.
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