Do these nationalists always dismantle their nation?
Do these nationalists always dismantle their nation?
That's a very interesting premise.
I can think of a few counterexamples (Franco in Spain, for all the atrocities committed by his regime, Spain unquestionably progressed economically), but in general yes, nationalists are disasters when in power. Of course it doesn't help that often, especially nowadays, the nationalism is just a wrapper for a bunch of grifters that say whatever is needed to get into power (Farage, Le Pen, Trump, Orban, PiS, Putin). So they're just gifting for personal benefit (which explains the dismantling), advertised as nationalism because that convinces the masses.
Now, only the parts outside the tier 1 cities are falling apart.
> wasted their Soviet heritage military arsenal
30-year-old arsenals require replacement, and war (even an embarrassing one) is an to modernize them.