On October 25, 2016, Dr. Yuri Maltsev spoke on Russian energy strategy, and how it fits in with Russia’s overall strategic picture, both in the form of the Soviet Union and without, in the contemporary era. Soviet economic planning was ruthless but utterly inefficient, and so when the façade of strength broke, the new Russian state had nothing to fall back onto except energy resources.
While the new Russian political establishment under Putin was adept at utilizing energy flows out of his country for political benefit, Russia nonetheless to date still suffers from the failures of its Soviet era economy. This has now been rolled over into a new centralized system of government-private economic partnerships designed to power through tougher economic times.