Watchung, the writer specifies how the chaos and turmoil of the 90s raised the Russians’ appetite for a Stalinist “strong hand” mechanism of power and their willingness to revert back to Soviet psychological tendencies to cope and re-collectivize around a national idea. She never said things were “better” before Putin.
Economics, specifically Putin-omics is another story. Will expand more later.
But let’s just say in the grand scheme, Putin’s been a bad, not good thing for Russia regardless of a few material perks gained in the 00’s - and that had more to do with lucky oil prices than with his leadership. And if it weren’t for him, they would have gained a whole lot more and be a LOT better off than they are now.
There is no reason to think that. Who would have been the better leader? Berezovsky?
You sound like a parody of boomer neocon who hasn’t learned anything new in the last 20 years.