Kudos to Lex for some good questions and allowing the brilliant, insightful and knowledgeable Kotkin answer at length. Very informative.<br><br>As for asking Putin where he sees Russia in 25 years, I think we can see now - over 2 years after this interview if it wasn't obvious before - that Putin's plan for Russia is mostly about security and commodities, acting as if this were the 19th century. The lack of investment into human capital (education and training) is the most glaring error because without higher value added production, the best Russia can hope for is to continue to be a supplier of oil and gas, nickel and other raw materials - if he can even manage to maintain that level of economic production given his geopolitical misstep in Ukraine. Understanding that his population is dwindling and that there is a brain-drain, he knows that he won't have much of a military in the future and so is striking now, attempting to shore up Russia's vulnerable points geographically (including taking control of the Black Sea ports and land-locking Ukraine in order to devastate its economy and build up Russia's economy on the Black Sea ports). Putin, like those of his ilk, are all very much zero-sum thinkers and are trying to drag us back to pre ww2 world order of empire against empire.