A close second is Russia. While Russian civilian technological acumen has all but collapsed since the Cold War’s end, so too has Russian industrial capacity. The end result has freed up five million barrels of oil and around 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas for daily export. The Russians have never been slaves to modern capitalistic norms, and the future will be no exception. I have exceedingly high confidence that in time, Russian shortages in capital, labor, and technical command will erode away all of those exports.
