Russia’s commodity-based economy has struggled for the past decade as oil and natural gas prices have stalled worldwide, and Western nations have imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its Crimean annexation and its intervention in Ukraine. Given its nuclear, military, and geopolitical might, we would expect Russia to be a dominant economic power, but in fact, the Russian economy, in nominal terms, is a bit smaller than that of Canada or Texas. National economic growth is expected to remain at an anemic one or two percent in years to come. The average real income for Russians has been in decline for several years. Life expectancy at birth ranks 153^rd in the world. 

Questions
1. New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote recently about Russia’s great intellectual and spiritual traditions (think of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov): The Russian ethos was not bourgeois, economically minded and pragmatic. There were radicals who believed that everything should be seen in materialistic terms. But this was a reaction to the dominant national tendency, which saw problems as primarily spiritual rather than practical, and put matters of the soul at center stage. Today, Brooks thinks Russia’s cultural impact has been diminished, as grasping for power and money have become dominant motives. In adopting elements of a more market-based economy, has Russia (as with capitalist nations) doomed its intellectual and spiritual live? Explain.
2. Can China maintain its closed, centrally controlled political system while enjoying the benefits of its somewhat open economic markets? Explain