Russia is so poor because its Fürstenstadt is just too expensive to maintain. Moscow is a geographic anomaly among the cities of its size, being located so:

1) far north
2) deep inland and far from (used) navigable waterways
3) in a non-farming region

It's too expensive to feed pic.twitter.com/PLYX4icHrd

— Kamil Galeev (@kamilkazani) July 27, 2022