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Venezuelan President Survives Drone Assassination Attempt (cnn.com)
The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, has survived an apparent assassination attempt involving drones that exploded close to him while he was speaking at an event in Caracas. State television showed Maduro abruptly cutting short his speech during a celebration of the National Guard's 81st anniversary. From a report: In a tweet, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, called the incident at the military parade a "terrorist attack against the president and the high military command blaming the opposition for the violence." Venezuela's international government broadcaster, TeleSUR, said on Twitter that the Venezuelan government confirmed an attempted attack on Maduro. Venezuela's vice president for communications, Jorge Rodriguez, later addressed the nation on live TV at the request of Maduro. He said people heard explosions that corresponded to drones and heard drones detonate near a parade for the occasion.
I think it was actually worse than that. The Soviet Union managed to miss educating its people for the current world's economy. That's why it is still centered on exploitation of mineral wealth. They still produce world class academics, but have no real way to get them into the economic life of the country. The West and Orient have figured out how via startup companies...well, China is rather using a sledgehammer here with their state owned companies, but they are not very efficient nor resourceful.
However, the worst thing the Soviet Union did to their people was make them reliant on the State. Putin needs to keep this charade up or he leads nothing. Too many of their people are susceptible to Kremlin propaganda. With no initiative of their own, they are also prey to the few oligarchs who have transitioned from state ownership to "private" ownership.
Maduro says it was an assassination attempt by drones, BUT firefighters say a gas tank in an apartment exploded.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/04/venezuelan-president-nicolasmaduro-cuts-short-speech-panic-amid/
Germany and Japan were both really destroyed by WWII (they lost, were occupied, and Japan had been nuked) and they recovered within a couple of decades to become world class, dominant economic powers; by 1990 Japan had surpassed the Soviet Union despite much less population and far fewer natural resources. Well, make that, West Germany recovered; East Germany under a Soviet style government/economy didn't do so well. After what Japan went through in that war and their subsequent recovery, no one else can complain about starting over from a devastated country.