Russians never grasped the concept of building a society from the inside out — you know: the ancient Roman civitas idea. Makes them indifferent, rely on patriotism for the sake of strict obedience to the Kremlin, weaponizing their rulers, which obliterates the civitas principle. It’s a vicious circle. Russia is doomed. No prospects of improving individually, intellectually, culturally, technologically, and as a nation. THAT is the real tragedy. In retrospect, you might say that Russians have never given themselves the chance. They were bullied by the Czar and his autocratic elite, then communist dictatorship, to end with Vlad Putin’s ‘contrat social’, which means: STFU in exchange for improvements materially.