

In November 2005 the euro was at a similar level to today. In February of 2008 it was over 1.50. YTD we saw a 13.27% gain of the EUR. At that pace it takes about a year to be at 1.50. With Trump in charge and things like an end of the war in Ukraine possible, that could indeed happen.
That is honestly giving the CIA way too much credit. The NGVD one of the predecessors of the the KGB was responsible for massive ethnic cleansing operation within the Soviet Union. They stayed around and always were very close to power. Under Putin they took over. Organized crime was always going to happen, when you have a collapse of central authority combined with a huge economic crisis. The 90s in Russia were worse then the Great Depression was for the US. Far right groups are mostly powerful in Russia, because they have no ideological problem with a strong leader like Putin, so Putin did not actively fight them.