Gestures wildly at every capitalist oligarchy masquerading as a "democracy"

I mean, Russia's objectively worse in 100x ways, but corruption is accepted everywhere. It's fuckin wild what rich pepper can get away with. Putin's just at the point where he doesn't have to hide it because if you complain he will have you murdered.

8+ decades of hardcore civilian oppression, declining opportunities, and constant propaganda are what has brought them there, and we aren't far behind them.

But the GDP went up!

Like, I'm honestly wondering how long they can keep stuff like this going. Here at home people are complaining about 5 % interest rates and how it's affecting people's personal economy. I mean, we're seeing an inflation rate of almost 10 % and interest rates of almost 20% in Russia, they can't possibly keep that going for very much longer?

MOAR!!