A superpower with vast resources, talent, and global influence begins to unravel—not through invasion, but through its own decisions. Institutions weaken, the economy narrows, and the costs of war compound beneath the surface. From lost talent to shrinking options, this is a detailed look at how long-term choices can quietly reshape a nation’s trajectory and why the consequences may last for generations. Russia began the 21st century with extraordinary starting capital. What the Putin era converted that capital into, step-by-step, decision-by-decision, was a system increasingly designed to consume its own future. Destroying a country does not take one catastrophic moment. It takes a series of decisions that each makes the next one harder to undo. Until one day, the door had been closing for so long that nobody inside even noticed.
