True, i'll update my original statement to without an "internal failure, no one is taking anything from russia."
that said. the soviets fell because of a myriad of reasons. one of the biggest is the public's lost of faith in the communist system following years of corruption, economic stagnation, and the rise in the belief of the western system.
while some of these are in play in russia today, they are not to the same degree. for example, yes there is some economic issues, but this time they can point, largely rightly, that the cause was because the west imposed it on russia rather than the reason being totally due to internal mismanagement(although there is totally some mismanagement). additionally they can also point to the west and say that the western world isnt doing so hot economically either, in short, the attractiveness of the west is far less now than in late soviet times. they once believe that if only they got rid of their communist system and opened up, they would be welcomed by the west and they too can live like citizens in the west, everyone could hand hands and live in peace. instead what they got was a massive economic crash, oligarchs, corruption that puts the soviet system to shame , followed by huge decreases in security as nato continuously expanded towards them while still viewing them as the enemy. having been through it once, people are not under the same delusion this time around.
there is no indication russia will collapse. additionally, if you look at the russian political parties, the second most popular is actually the communist party and the 3rd most popular is an offshoot of putin's united russia. everything shows putin's hold is stable if not absolute.
