Its nothing to do with a US ploy, just quite simply MARKET COMPETITION (an alien phrase to someone in Russia no doubt who are used to doing what they are told). If you dont like it then make some extra competition yourself, reliance on one product is foolhardy and that isnt really disagreeable. Can you think of any successful country who had one sole product, imagine a country buildings its wealth based on sales of gold, its not viable or predictable in any way and extremely volatile to any outside influence/economic change/social change/worldwide tastes and a million other things.
The only thing hurting Russia is its lack of diversification.