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PREDICTIONS As the population continues to fall in Siberia, much of this area will  eventually come under Chinese control, which will accelerate  deforestation. Any possible future return  of ethnic Russians from Ukraine or the  Baltic, etc., into European Russia will be more than offset by the  continuing surge in illegal/undocumented aliens from Central Asia  and legal aliens from China, overloading outdated infrastructure. Overall, the total census-legal population will continue to fall and as  it does, the percentage of Russians overall will decline even faster.   Islam will grow considerably in influence.   Putin’s long reign will  ensure that the percentages of Asian and Chinese (who are willing  to be subjected to crude living standards BETTER than in their  homelands) will grow considerably as he continues to bear down on  his own people. Global warming will improve arctic shipping and thus northern  Siberian river transport = development prospects will improve there.  Russia’s best and brightest will immigrate at higher and higher  levels. The lack of immediate and significant long-term investment between  1991-1998, followed by practically no investment in same after that,  will doom Russia’s future prospects for weaning itself from its  reliance on natural resources.  It’s no different now than in the  1500’s, when there were mainly furs and salt.  Bad habits are hard  to break.   
Due to a lack of capital and long-term investment strategy, most farming and  irrigation throughout Russia will be developed to first-world mechanized standards  by the Chinese, restoring Russia’s greatest economic historical legacy; however,  the scythe will never be abandoned in many marginal small plots and on hilly  terrains, as there are still many Chinese farmers available for conscription. Russia’s attempts to maintain its only super-power status component via means of submarines and multiple-head ICBM’s (remember the name for this system:   BOOLAVA.  In Russian, this means a multi-headed mace) will ultimately meet  universal resistance, to the great detriment of its positions in the United Nations,  etc.  Russia’s direct links with past Serbian atrocities will become more evident, though, like WMD’s, they will be kept understated for political expediency.    Russia will demand a great deal more money from the United States for supplying  the Space Station.  This will not be nearly enough to maintain the old technologies  as morale and quality control decline Life in Russia will continue to become more and more difficult for its most  important necessarily forward-looking segment, women, and thus for their children  as well. With fewer and fewer men available, more and more women (especially  middle-aged) will have children alone and raise them in an extended family  environment or around like-situation peers. As more and more children are raised in matriarchal family settings, they will be  more and more pacifistic and compliant.  They will fit Putin’s requirements very  well. Something important will happen in Belorussia.  This place is unique compared to  the other formerly autonomous republics because less that 5% of the population is  pure Belorussian; another 75% is a mixture of same plus Polish, Ukrainian and  Russian, most of which claim wholly Belorussian ancestry.  These folks have had a long reputation in Russia for being a bit crazy, so Stalin spread them out all over  Siberia for dilution.  Also, this place has very limited natural resources.   Historically, it had a large Jewish base; maybe one day, part of  it will become a  new Jerusalem.  Russia would love to control it again but, as with everything else,  it lacks money and planning and resolve for this at-present unrewarding task.  The  West rightfully downgrades it as a dictatorship.  It is a universally  unloved buffer-  state vacuum waiting for something to happen.  Belorussia will always be  inherently unstable because it’s on the border with Russia.  The wolf pack could  finish it off at any time, a fact which greatly discourages western investment.