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Actually yeah, parallels there too. On paper, in 17th/18th c, Asian powers were more powerful than colonizers in economic terms. But Europe was ahead on 1-2 things that mattered. Russia is economically a non-entity now, but is ahead on 1-2 things that matter, like cyberwarfare
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Fascinating. And tragic. Wouldn’t seem to be the same set of structural parallels, though: relative strengths of economy, government, institutions, etc. Or are there? twitter.com/vgr/status/101
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Demographics is a medium term problem for Russia. In the immediate, their biggest problem is the global perception that anything Russian is tainted with top-down cleptocratic corruption. However, Russia has been relativizing their behavior with the aid of disgruntled Westerners.