> Russia is a puzzlement because they are the last shining example of people who can get things into space, reliably, regularly, and for a reasonable price.

What about the US? The country won the space race - wouldn't they still be a shining example of space travel and engineering?

Well, the US used to have a space program. But a bunch of short-sighted dickwads ended that.

Russia is the only reason the International Space Station is still flying. There is nobody who can get equipment to/from the ISS except Russia. (Except SpaceX, who docked the Dragon with the ISS last year. And, in fact, a high school friend of mine is the PILOT of the Dragon!! Woo!!)

The future of the US space program is firmly in the hands of the private sector. Real space is only 200 miles away, but goddamn it's hard to get there!

But the Russians? They go there ALL THE FUCKING TIME. No other nation does that. Be proud.

> Why is it that a country that has such a reliable and effective space program cannot create a basic car?

That is a good non-rhetorical question, as well. My uneducated theory is that the USSR has put so much effort into overcoming the US in the space race that all of the engineering efforts were put into it, which may have left other industries weakened.

Actually, I think the answer is pretty easy. I used to work at NASA, and one of the departments I worked with was specifically tasked with taking the innovations that NASA had developed, and giving them to companies in the private sector to commercialize.

NASA is publicly funded with our tax dollars. So the public wants to see the stuff NASA invents released to the public in useful ways. Here are a bunch of examples.

This may the be core problem with Russia's space program... is there is no concerted effort to move that technology to the private sector. Because you guys have all the skills and knowledge... but just aren't transferring it well to others. In the big scope of things, that is a small problem to solve. So that's part of why I think Russia has so much untapped potential.

My uneducated theory is that the USSR has put so much effort into overcoming the US in the space race that all of the engineering efforts were put into it, which may have left other industries weakened.

That's true. But all of that knowledge and skill resides in people's heads. And those people need to be able to find capital, start a business, and find a market for the products they make with their good ideas. And that's a tough thing to find in Russia today, while it is easy to find in the US.

> You clearly have the technical prowess to keep up with anybody.

Why do you say that? The Soviet Union lost the Cold War exactly because it didn't have the technology to keep up with the West.

Not as I understand it. We basically bankrupted you. We didn't win due to superior technical prowess, we won because you ran out of money first. (But it was very close.)

> Russia sabotaging itself with self-defeating exceptionalism

Can you elaborate on that?

It's what I was saying before, about Russia always taking sides with international pariah states, instead of working hand-in-hand with the first world nations to try and make the entire world a better place. Russia always seems to feel like they need to partner up with the underdog, the international bad guy. And that definitely makes it hard for anyone to work with Russia in any other context - business, trade, etc.

Take Syria, for example.

Everyone got together and agreed that Assad is a total asshole douchewaffle, who runs a psychotic regime of repression, torture, and hate.

Then ISIS shows up, and says that they are creating the second coming of a Muslim caliphate by drawing the western powers into a ground war in their "holy land", as prophesied in their scriptures. And they go on a crusade of horror and torture to try and draw the wester powers into a ground war.

So the world's powers get together and say, "We're not gonna fall for that. We can starve them out. We can cut off their oil, money, food, etc, and lay an economic siege. They will eventually wither away."

So everyone gets on board, and ISIS continues to do stupid shit to try and provoke these nations to put boots on the ground, but everybody stands firm. ISIS wavers. They almost fall apart at the seams. They are within about 3 months of falling apart and dying in isolation.

Then Russia breaks ranks with the rest of the world and goes full-out war on Syria. Thereby reinforcing ISIS's basic premise, driving up their recruitment to all time highs, and starting the next Afghanistan.

Not only do they empower ISIS by fulfilling ISIS's every wish, Russia also decides to be a real dick about it, and enthusiastically support the psychotic despot Assad!!

So not only are they happy to completely fuck the world into a global world war in the middle east, they decide to back the absolute worst human being on the planet... a guy who can't even get support inside his own country!!

THAT is the "Russian exceptionalism" I am talking about.

Again, thank you for sharing. Your point of view is invaluable in understanding Russia.

Thank YOU man!! This is very interesting for me, as well. Your viewpoint as a regular person inside of Russia looking out, is fascinating for me.