The picture he paints is entirely consistent with a book I mentioned a few posts back, Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love With Putin. The picture one gets is of a generous, enduring, warm-hearted people shaped by centuries of oppression into a sort of terminal fatalism.
With respect to the current government, it really isn't all that different from what has preceded it over the past few centuries, from communism to the tsars. Although it has the trappings of a democratic system, in fact it is really just a huge mafia gang, with Putin as the capo di tutti capo, or Godfather. He has maintained public support by playing the nationalism card repeatedly, keeping his inner circle of cronies very wealthy, and using the nation's oil and mineral wealth to provide some improvement in services. But like many of the oil-rich Arab states, he hasn't used the current (and highly temporary) oil wealth to invest in modern infrastructure, modern manufacturing, or better education, and to make his nation more competitive in the world markets.
Since corruption is rampant at all levels, from the lowest local official or traffic cop to the president himself (reputedly now worth over 40 billion), it is hard to see how this country can ever become a first-world power, for all that it aspires to that status. It certainly won't happen quickly, if at all. Meanwhile, the West will have to learn how to manage Russian's inherent expansionism, and deal with it's authoritarian government.
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