>>904760
AT the Sochi Olympics, when the foreign press tried to provoke Putin about the American boycott, he said it was unfortunate that the USA would take politics into sport. And then he said something real interesting.
Putin admires Americans for their creativity and their ability to make new things happen. He said Russia has a lot of work to do to catch up to that.
Now maybe this was partly a signal, that Russia was much stronger economically and militarily than people thought, because he was talking about catching up to Americans' creativity, but anyone who watches Russia closely has to have noticed a whole series of actions since Sochi that indicate a serious desire to capture some of that creative spirit. There is Skolkovo's attempt to be another Silicon Valley. There are science and engineering centers around the country to get kids interested in learning those subjects and expose them to real scientists and engineers.
The program of infrastructure improvements is not just highway and bridge building but for instance, in Vladivostok they built a bridge to Russkiy Island, then built a new Federal University, then build a new regional hospital, then built some medical research institutes. Clearly they want to concentrate medical expertise in one place because they have learned that is the environment that is needed for leaps of creativity.
In Crimea they built 4 electric cables to connect them to mainland Russia and at the same time, two electric generating stations that will make Crimea a net exporter of electricity. They have improved highways and rail links and bus systems all over Crimea in preparation for the new Kerch Strait Bridge that will link to mainland Russia. And they improved ferry terminals both near Kerch and closer to Sevastopol where longer haul ferries come from Novorossiysk and Turkey.
They really do want to catch up and surpass the USA. Which is a damn good thing, because Russia is an unconquerable country and they don't want to expand and take over the world. But they do want to be better than the USA. So why is that good?
Because you do your best work when you have a strong opponent to compete against. It raises standards across the board. the next 50 years is going to see an unbelievable leap forward in science and technology just because so many people will be unleashed to work on these things. It will be GLORIOUS.