It seems like Russian leadership remains pretty much the same no matter what ideological banner they run under: Ignore domestic problems and focus on foreign expansion. That was the problem that the Czars exacerbated, that they were unconcerned with internal living conditions and merely interested in playing their power games with other European powers. After the 1930s, the Communists were pretty much the same: let the domestic sphere rot so long as we have strategic parity with the United States, funding went away from every domestic sphere imaginable so that the military could be primed

Today it's much the same way. You've got the United Russia party with a virtual monopoly on power, and they seem utterly determined to ignore any and all domestic unrest, so long as they can focus on getting Western Europe hooked on their oil and keeping the former Soviet states in line. Hell, they don't even seem to care that much about Chechnya anymore, otherwise we would have seen a sterner response from that Moscow subway bombing a while back. Average life expectancy is going down, the brain drain is accelerating, they are determined to ignore a growing AIDS epidemic, until very recently they maintained that global warming was a myth perpetuated by America to weaken their industrial sector, and this past summer they let wildfires tear across the country unchecked

Basically Russia keeps coming full-circle. They deposed the Tsars to install Communist Tsars, and deposed the Communist Tsars to bring about United Russia Tsars, all of whom pretty much think and operate the same

Will Russia ever get it right?

In soviet russia,wrong is right.

Soviet Russia was complex. Too complex to sum it up with an Orwellian riff.

Russia has been pre-occupied with the west as much as it has been pre-occupied by Russification. They are two of its historical twines that twist around everything that they are involved in. It is a most interesting thing.

I would suggest that the fear of the west is part of the problem and that is understandable, no?

This meant under Stalin, at least, massive industrialisation at the cost of the civilian population's welfare. I guess he believed it would help Russia in the long-run. He was wrong.

Gorbachev seemed pretty committed to domestic affairs, but he inherited a complete clusterfuck, so he couldn't do very much of anything without collapsing the Soviet Union.

It'll happen eventually. Just not while Putin holds any position of power.

Russia spends more on health care per capita than any other country in the world btw. 

Its the mentality of the people that is to blame, not the leaders...in my opinion. Lots of drinking, lots of suicides, somewhat depressing stte of mind...

Also, Im pretty sure on Russian video game forums right now, someone is posting..."will USA every get it right?" and is talking about spending gazillions on the supposed war on terror, while the health care in the country is laughable compared most of the civilized world. Its a difference in culture.

No country ever gets it right when it comes to government.  Though I agree, Russia is worst than just about any other Western nation.

The solution?  Move out.  That's what some of the most productive, intellegent and creative Russians have been doing for a long time.

I'll agree it's not necessarily an issue of leadership. The Russian people tend not to trust one another, or trust authority, yet prefer authoritarian regimes who will run things and leave them out of it

i watched a recent news piece on Russia's alcohol problems hospital beds full of mainly men but women on the increase

the average life  for men is 62. they talked about vodka being cheap and how increasing the cost would just drive people to buy the home distilled stuff, we just had a tax on cigarettes here in Australia and  300k gave up based on the increased tax, but we don't have Russia's history of black market and there social traditions the other thing  i noticed was parts of Russia  looked like modern western Europe and parts that looked like something out of depression era US so it is real hard to think of solutions when confronted with the disparities and shear size of the Country

That's always been a problem, of course, though smaller countries have similar issues (Ecuador, for one. A reasonably advanced place in Quito and Guayaquil, but outside that...)

I blame the cold weather. 

Freezing your nuts off leads to alcohol which leads to putting power in the hands of questionable people.