Where will Russia be in 20 years? How did that song go? "In the year 2525, if man is still alive..." I am pessimistic about mankind in general, and the coming tribulations vis-a-vis the religion of peace.
Russia has undergone an amazing transformation. As a snot-nosed punk I worked a little while at the old US embassy during the Brezhnev days, then visited for a month in '93. Russia had nose-dived then, and seemed to be beyond hope. Then when I lived there off and on '98 - '01 I was amazed at at how fast it was modernizing and improving (except for a little setback in August of '98). They went from matchs that would not light and cardboard that fell apart in your hands to a cheap version of Germany. You have not lived until you have almost blown yourself up lighting a Soviet hot-water heater ;-)
But, the old Khrushchev crackerbox apartments are making way to "luksus" and "evrostandart", medieval meat markets (when you could find them) transformed into Aldis. Restaurants serve salt in shakers, cops do not pull you over as much for driving an expensive car, billboards exort you to chew Orbit without sugar. Even the beer is better.
The big question now is China. In order to survive in the short-term, Russia has been equipping and educating her natural enemy. Russia's population dropped severely, a lot of military-age kids were not born or immigrated away, and the remaining 150 million is disproportionally aged. There are now ten Chinese for every Russian, and Russia's resource-rich far east is a tempting target.
If Russia can hold on to her eastern riches, she may even eclipse the US. Her downfall might be China, or her restless growing Moslem population, or even her criminal under and overclass.
It all depends on this coming generation. This makes me guardedly optimistic.