Russia's Q1 budget deficit narrows to 1% of GDP

if only USSR managed to last a few more decades

Russia has a low unemployment rate and a strong trade surplus, which are the 2 macroeconomics factors that are really important. The former means that they are running their economy close to its physical limits, the latter means that their financial position wrt other countries is improving over time.

The government deficit itself is not really so important, since the conservation of money during trading means that

Net debt of Russian private sector + net debt of Russian government + net debt of rest of world to Russia = 0

Since money can only flow between these 3 sectors.

So as long as there is a trade surplus, the "net debt of rest of world to russia" is increasing, and this can be divided between the government or the private sector.

As a side note, this is why austerity efforts are always doomed. Any debt that the government isn't picking up is picked up by the private sector. Only actual way to reduce debts is by fixing the trade balance.

I've been under the impression that for countries that print their own money, deficits aren't that important as long as the outstanding debt doesn't rapidly inflate like in Japan's case.