Potentially Russia is a rich country but with its wealth in natural resources and the fertile land, the country has nothing to show in development terms.
Poor infrastructure and the widespread poverty are the key features defining the country's diverse landscape leaving only few elites like dictator Putin and his henchmen to enjoy the country's massive wealth.
Today when the Kremlin regime is fighting an expensive and a foolish war in Ukraine, a population of about one in fifth of Russians live in abject penury.
But in a country in which political propaganda is among the regime's top core values of governance since the reign of the first communist despot the late Vladimir Lenin, it won't be easy for the poorly informed people of Russia to realize that the senseless war their government is currently waging in Ukraine will be a catalyst toward exacerbating their economic predicament and only time will tell.