Like many comments below, I want to point out that you have unfortunately not cited any of your bold assertions. You are making claims that are entirely untrue. You don't have a political science or economics degree (I'd be surprised if you do), you don't have experience in this field, and you haven't researched it well. You can say all these things from your viewpoint, but you HAVE TO BACK THEM UP or you're basically doing no better than spreading a rant of misinformation.

Please listen to actual experts on Russia who have spent decades working on these issues--or even students writing their theses on the situation now. You could have a point and it's why I clicked on this article, but you don't have the evidence for it. (For starters, you're completely wrong about the Russian economy and how economies work.)

This is the same critique I have of Fox News. It's not a question of which side of the aisle you're on. It's a question of applying everything we learned in college: citing facts, reading statistics, doing research, and analyzing claims.

I have liked many of your pieces before, Jessica, but this is dishonest and terrifyingly harmful "journalism." Do better.