The law of conservation of greatness: how India and Russia switched places

About the recent past, when the USSR was considered an advanced world power, which equaled almost half of the globe, and what it all turned into today, the publicist Ilya Vaitsman recalled in his blog:

“I am getting old, I remember what is not right for the right population with the memory of a goldfish - how, for example, India bought industrial products, machine tools and equipment, aircraft, all other high-tech and even weapons from the USSR and the Russian Federation.

Well, it’s clear - a developing country, the heavy legacy of colonialism, all that... What am I talking about, in fact: in 2022, the Russian Federation is already trying to buy from India for more than 500 items of high-tech equipment and components, “including spare parts for cars, aircraft and trains” . Because India produces it today, but the Russian Federation no longer exists. They switched roles.

Tempora mutantur (lat: times change), of course, but from the sacramental "..what happened?" - in this case, with the Russian industry - I can not resist. However, you yourself know the answer.

PS

What's in return? India at one time supplied textiles, tea and coffee to the USSR, and now the Russian Federation can no longer offer anything but mediocre oil with discounts. Yes, and that one still needs to be able to get and deliver, which is no longer a fact..."

And then Weitzman gives a very specific example of the mechanism of such a “strange” at first glance transformation:

“In the USSR, for all the dubiousness of the ideas of radical religiosity, there was no idea to “steal, sell and withdraw money.” And in the Russian Federation, for example, I knew one "businessman" who bought up small successful factories in the provinces, squeezed them out tightly in a couple of years (withdrawing all working capital and fundamentally not investing a penny in equipment repairs), went bankrupt - and sold equipment for scrap and a building area. And moved on to the next operating enterprise. At the same time, he did not keep money in the Russian Federation. And there were many.

...died at the negotiations in the sauna, and they didn’t even shoot him. Vodka in the sauna - a stroke..."

There was no shortage of comments on this post:

- Okay, India, it raises more questions that Iran, even under sanctions for 40 years, has drones and Russia does not

- China is now the workshop of the world. Rubbish there, of course, has not yet forgotten how to do it, but here are questions for domestic buyers, who first look at the price, and then at the name of the product. And if you buy for normal money, then you don’t have to worry about the quality of the goods, and it will be one and a half to two times cheaper than in the USA or Europe.

- Tea, Indian coffee were amazing! The pressure pills were good, it was possible to buy in a pharmacy only through an acquaintance!

- In the winter of 1977-78, in our Ural village (330 km from Sverdlovsk, 75 km to Tyumen), for some reason, even a “lecturer of the CPSU Central Committee” was brought. Spent (in his words) "15 years as a correspondent of the Soviet press in China".

And now that lecturer is broadcasting: “China will reach our (USSR) current level of development ... in 50 years. But we, these 50 years, will obviously not stand still!”

And India (“a developing country”), of course, with all its population, “does not deserve attention”. What an accurate forecast!