Russian Politics

So it's news that Putin fired Russia's Prime Minister.

On the contrary, it's news that Russia even has a Prime Minister.

I use Russia as an example for all of the idiots who think that possession of raw materials is necessary for a country to be wealthy. Japan has few natural resources, but it has wealth. Russia has a great many natural resources, and it's a case-study in misery.

Honestly, I don't understand the Russians. What did Churchill call them, a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a puzzle? (or something like that). In 1917, they forced the Tsar to abdicate his authority to the Duma, and for the first time ever, Russia was free of tyranny. A few months later, they let the Bolsheviks take control, and they made the Tsars look like puppet monarchists. After decades of communism, the Russians finally stood up for themselves, only once again to slip back into their old habits.

Can the Russian people as a whole have something akin to a societal form of "Battered Women's Syndrome"?