Russia Who said that oil is a curse?

There is a widespread explanation of the crisis - the resource curse is imposed on Russia, and now is the day of reckoning. Of course, it's a metaphor.

Everyone understands that the presence of its own resources is not a curse, but the God's grace. But can the resource availability work against the economy? It can.

Let’s imagine a kind of state, which has gold, metals, diamonds, oil and gas in excess. And here an external man comes, organizes exploration, production, imports equipment and specialists, and the local population works as cleaners and laborers in the best. All proceeds from the wealth, hidden in the depths, are taken by an external man, and the country receives a royalty - rental income. And goes on the spree on it. This is a catastrophe.

Now, let’s back to Russia from this abstraction. In Soviet times, the country reached the level of liquid hydrocarbons production of over 600 million tons per year.