Came here to say this.
In response to a mass shooting in 1996 Australia passed strict gun regulations. Since then you can pretty much count the number of mass shootings in that country on one hand.
Compare that to Wikipedias list of mass shootings in the USA for just 2025. I stopped counting that list at 300.
IT professional for 20 years. C/C++ developer for 10 years prior to that.
My first job out of college was mostly luck. I took a job doing tech support but after a couple of years was able to transition into development work.
Virtually every job since that first one has been thanks to connections I made among coworkers. I got my current job because I knew two employees here. One of them was a co-founder of the company, and somebody I’ve known since the 1990’s and worked with at 3 other companies prior to this.
Don’t forget that they are also reportedly squandering their gold reserves, and are losing a lot of revenue from Ukraines growing attacks on oil infrastructure. Russia isn’t going to be able to pay its soldiers or buy equipment if those two trends continue.