It is true, western sanctions have failed miserably in destroying Russia's economy. To the contrary, Russia's economy has been booming since 2022 and keeps doing well, also projected into the future. Why? "We have exponentially increased our economic sovereignty", President Putin commented at a recent meeting with aircraft factory employees in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia. The autonomous Republic of Buryatia is in the south of Eastern Siberia, along the border with Mongolia. Its territory takes up two thirds of the water area of Lake Baikal (see map below). This just as an idea of the enormous landmass, called Russia, and what lays above and beneath her.