There was no Renaissance in Russia

 There was no Renaissance or Reformation per se in Russia. At the ascension of Peter the Great (1682-1725), the main garments were medieval robes, women of the royal family were kept locked in towers, literacy was barely existent and contact with other countries shunned. Russian forces of that era were mauled by Ottomans and Swedes. There was no northern seaport. Serfdom, flogging, death by impalement or any number of similarly gruesome methods was common. Russia lost the Crimean War in 1856 to England, France, and the Ottomans. Fast forward to 1904 and Russia is trounced by Japan. The revolution in 1917 takes place partly because of the incompetent leadership during WWI. The Soviet Union won WWII by a combination of attrition and scorched earth, brawn over brain. Post war Europe, the Iron Curtain, and Cold War are within memory for many.

Economics and innovation has never been a strong suit. Military expansion to take ever more territory and resources has (as Rome did to maintain bread & circuses, this is a pyramid scheme of an economy).

“We must invade to protect our ethnic kindred there” – Hitler to the Sudetenland in 1938, Putin in Ukraine 2022. The premise is to quietly colonize by building up population. It is a very old tactic really.

Ronald Reagan defeated the Evil Empire by managing an arms race that Russia could not afford.

Unlike China which went to brutal Marxism under Mao to a pseudo capitalism, Russia still did not manage to get an economy going after the breakup of the Soviet Union. If you suddenly got rid of all the Chinese made goods in your home, closet, and garage, it might be quite bare. What Russian made items do you own?

Putin needs Ukraine for the resources to be sure, but moreso for his egomaniacal pride. He is unbalanced and evil. He is also unchecked -- Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014, Belarus election interference last year. The real question is where does he stop? Kiev? Bucharest? Vilnius? Warsaw? And also can/will anyone do anything of substance?