I wouldn't say Putin is an asset to any country, but you can't blame it all on him either. With people like Lenin, Stalin and Jeltsin as your predecessors you don't really start off good.
With such high oil prices Russia could survive for a long time, slowly rotting away just like Italy is described in the article. Although, since Russia has already much lower quality of life, and since bringing the president or even a member of parliament to court is completely unthinkable here, we would rot down much faster.
At the same time, they did set the stage for a dramatic recovery.