I sold some steel-frame housing packages to a construction company in Vladivostok (actually, I sold the idea to them - I made nothing from the company that produced them . . . I was an idiot on that one). The head of the construction company was really a very nice guy. But he really believed that the only way to insulate a building for their climate was to use brick and concrete 18 inches thick. What cold buildings Russians build !!
So, a Korean firm was building a steel frame office complex with terrific insulation products. I took my Russian friend on a tour of it. The walls were about 9 inches thick total, and the R value was unbelievably high.
Until I left Vladivostok, the housing construction firm resisted the steel frame. Only later did they contact the steel frame company in Arizona and shipped the units. (So I didn’t get any commission.)
My point is, in the mid to late 1990s, Russians in technological fields seemed to be very far behind the times.
Vladivostokians in those years were intensely interested in the U.S. Peace Corps (one-world socialist freaks bordering on being an inward cult, from our observations), UNO assistance agencies (more socialists), international environmentalist organizations (more socialists), and of all things, the Baha’i Faith. Well, Baha’i teaches one-world-ism, socialism, deliberate race-maxing, and has its international offices in the UNO complex in New York.
“My point is, in the mid to late 1990s, Russians in technological fields seemed to be very far behind the times.”
You DO recall that they did beat us into space, right ?
It’s the Russians political system telling them how things should be done that keeps them behind in many areas.