Will try to provide quite unpopular opinion here and of course feel free to call me a bot later. Maybe be not the good time to speak, but read first pls.
Some background - im in mid 30s now, dad had died when i was 14, mom worked for goverment so family was poor. Start to work at 16, first business at 20 (small construction contractor then dropshipping, vending machines, coffee shops even laundry) at this moment im owning 7 hostels in 2 cities and electronic firm with office in eastern europe. if there will be no surprises my income this year will be close to 1m eur.
Didnt give any single bribe in my life.
Cant talk about whole russia but in my region (western siberia/ural) peoples gives bribes not because bad bureaucrats treaten to you, but because of maximizing yours profits. "sir you have rats on you kitchen - shut up and take my money", "sir yours night club is going to catch fire if anyone will try to light a cigarette inside - shut up and take my money", "sir you are planning to build a houses on a place of toxic waste dump (real story)- shut up and take my money". Yes, some industry are 99% corrupt (big contrsuction/road construction for example) but only because of profits. But even without bribes small/medium business is crazy profitable. And if you a dealing here with less than 25% profits you are doing something extremly wrong and stupid like milking a bull.
There is less problems in system then in an average ivan. Peoples loves to cheating in every possible way and if something going wrong after blame system. Stealing in business for example is just crazy, as funny-sad story about that - dude i know quite good change 5 executive directors in 2 years, cos all take bribes from suppliers ot straight up stealing. Hidden cameras paid themselfes in 2-3 months. God i can write books about that
There was a really a lot of positive changes in last 20 years. Can it be better? Probably. Can it be worse? Definitely. And while i can see perspectives and "stabilty" i dont really care what happens in kremlin or who get large government contract. However there is a lot of craziness in last 4 years and i dont know what scare me more - sequel of current politics or something new and potentially more dangerous. There is always a chance "and then things got worse" in russia