NATIONALISM DOESN'T WORK:

The World Bank estimates Russia's growth potential -- a key indicator of how fast an economy can expand in normal times and which is seen as the best predictor of long-term prosperity -- at below 2% a year.

"Russia still faces the challenge of raising its long-term growth rates ... in large part, the constraints that were there prior to the pandemic remain," said David Knight, the World Bank's lead economist for Russia. 

The list of those constraints is long. It includes "adverse demographics, structural economic bottlenecks, a lack of far-reaching reform to diversify from the oil and gas sector's dominant role in the economy, weak governance ... high vulnerability to geopolitical risk ... weak physical infrastructure, high income inequality and inefficient social safety nets," according to Scope Ratings analyst Levon Kameryan.

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