I think you're spot on with "young people dumb". Takes a while to figure out.. like, everything.
Generations will have different strong and\or weak areas because their environment changes, but our sum total of "competence" will stay the same IMHO.
Petersburg has no business extending its influence so far north and east, Volga is hoarding all access to the black sea-going river, mashing up Chechnya Dagestan and Ingushetia into a single entity is the instant noodles of ethnic cleansing.
Don't know enough about the eastern parts to comment, but split each chunk into 3 more parts to be sure.
I have a split 40% because I type for a living and normie keyboards destroy my wrists.