Again, this is all true. Many people don’t know that Ukraine started getting ahead in the standard of living because this is new. Ten or even 5 years ago, the situation was the exact opposite. There have been massive changes in the past few years. Enormous reforms have been conducted in Ukraine. The bureaucratic obstacles to starting and running a business, for example, were dramatically reduced. The tax burden on startups was seriously lowered. Enormous efforts were made to re-industrialize, and we all know how I feel about that. Roads, schools, and hospitals were built. Russia has done none of this. None of the enormous oil wealth went into improving the standard of living. Starting a business is still less profitable than not doing it.
Obviously, things in Ukraine were very far from ideal. But it’s undeniable that there was serious movement in the right direction. The thing about regional economies is that they are dynamic. We can’t learn a single thing about them and then hold on to that belief forever. What was true a decade ago no longer is.
Clarissa's Blog 
The definition of “Insanity”, actually, is believing everything will always stay the same and is the same everywhere
…and that always doing the same thing over and over, even under different conditions, will invariably render the same results every time.
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Exactly. You can never understand how everything works once and for all. Things change. What was true a decade ago might have changed completely in the meantime.
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“Enormous reforms have been conducted in Ukraine”
That’s obviously a far bigger threat to the Russian model than all the blabbering about NATO…
A country speaking East Slavic languages that broke with its Soviet-Russian past and was becoming more prosperous (at ground level where it counts) is more of an existential threat to Russian despotism and kleptocracy than a mere military alliance (since Russia obviously does not fear armed conflict).
Why wasn’t this more widely known…
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I didn’t publicize the reforms as much as I should have either. I had this plan where I was going to travel to Ukraine. For the first time since 1998! I was going to document everything, take photos, and then write about my first-hand impressions. My sister was invited to speak in Kharkiv. It was going to be a great joint trip. I made that plan in February of 2020. Then it got postponed for until “after COVID.”
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