You don’t read much about it in the Western Press, but Russia has been spending big money in the last decade on infrastructure projects, to lay the foundations for the future. And they are doing it using Chinese/Japanese help, for the most part.
For instance, the 400 mile Moscow-St. Petersburg highway, built to what we would call “Interstate Standards” (Purdue is in on this project), revitalizing the East-West railway, the Kamchatka Roads project to open up Russia’s Northwest to resource development, etc.
They still have the corruption hurdle, so ingrained from the Soviet days, to get over, though.
(but, how is this any different than trying to do business in Chicago, Detroit, DC, or just about any long-term Democrat stronghold?)
Oops..
I meant “Russia’s Northeast”