No doubt, that in the near future they would be the first and on top of USA. Russia is open for innovation and somehow their Government is supporting the growth of Bitcoin in their country. This is quite uplifting but still, there should be no competition in terms of innovation. Well, hoping that the recent issue with China opens a much bigger opportunity not only for these powerhouse countries.
I don't disagree with you about Russia being open to innovation but you need to put the US level of welcoming cryptocurrency mining, Bitcoin, and Blockchain summit before you judge about what will happen in the future. However, the only thing I believe will make the Russian lead the US is if the government change their stance toward cryptocurrency.
Having said that, Canada is the country I expect to be among the top 3 countries in the future but that's if they decide to offer their waste energy for crypto miners.