>>>Putin has built instead an “autocratic state” that has exploited the country’s raw materials making “a tiny minority of Russians wildly rich, while the vast majority of Russians are left to grapple with an environment that is deeply toxic to entrepreneurship, innovation and honest business.”<<<
The reality is everyone in Russia benefits from “Putinism”.
Their average household income PPP per capita is now almost on par with West Virginia or Mississippi and still growing while both of these states are getting worse along with the rest of US since Obamao took office.
It is notable that before Putin “with an environment deeply friendly to entrepreneurship and honest business” Russia was looking worse than Detroit and average income was about $20 a week.
One could buy a tank factory for $120,000 and his friends could call him nuts stressing that a new Benz is a better investment.
The entire Russian national budget in mid1990s was lower than the State of New York spent to run public schools.
Today they are back to top five global economies.
If you give 10 people in a room a total of $1000, then the per capita income of each person is $100, even if you’ve given $991 to one person and $1 each to the rest. That’s a microcosm of income distribution in Russia today.