Actually the author is saying that the Russian economy is outdated. When the subsidies of Oil and Gas income disappear the lack of productivity and creativity in the rest of the economy becomes obvious.
Russia has made tremendous steps in modernizing the Oil and Gas sector. A lot of knowledge has been brought in from the West to improve the efficiency of the sector. Now oil prices are falling, the weakness of the rest of the economy and the dependency on the oil and gas sector, is hurting strongly.
This cannot be blamed on the West. This has to do with internal issues in Russia. The Russian government killed a lot of initiatives coming form the Russian society. Taxes were raised on smaller companies, keeping a legal system in place that does not give many guarantees and clientism.
The Russian Apples, Yahoos and the many many small companies that started in the West and East did not have a real chance.to grow and prosper and even survive.
It is a pity that Russia could not liberate itself from its old identity. Many Eastern European countries did make the painful change. They are still poor but much richer than they used to be.
If Russia Gvernment could try to make the change in their thinking. They should not keep on thinking in the benefits of Russia as entity, but start thinking in the benefits of the Russian people. Try to start joining the EU or makes steps in that direction. The EU will have its conditions on Human Rights, corruption etcetera, but joining the EU or working more closely together with EU would benefit the Russian people.
I am afraid he current regime will not make these steps and will try to fight for its own interests. The above is too idealistic.
Russian officials state that the Russian economy should focus on other activities tha Oil and Gas. The cheaper ruble gives chances for other parts of the economy. The problem here is that the other part of the economy is not very compettieve on the workd market and needs time to catch up.
Chances are big that the Ruble will go down even further in the coming weeks and the Russian people will have to go through some very though times in the near future.
Concerning the Rubble: Last week the Russian bank intervened with USD 15 billion to support the ruble. This is bringing back the reserves of the Russian bank back to USD 390 billion of which USD 170 billion is not liquid (and cannot be used for interventions). Also this week many Russian companies wre forced by Russian Government to sell their dollars.
This all happened in the X-mas period. What will happen from the 5th of January onwards: all traders are back and oil price slight lower and Putin making some more aggressive remarks on the Ukrain? I fear for a collapse of the Ruble.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
