Two main reasons:
- Employment is linked to growth. Most countries only generate new employment when they grow above 2% or so. BRICS need more than that to generate opportunities for their young people, as usually population is also on the rise.
- Because investment is about risk versus benefit. A BRICS is by their own nature can only attract investment and financing by offering a great growth rate.
It is quite basic. BRICS often have "bad years" but very rarely have several consecutive "bad years", but anyway, if you think is going well out there... enjoy.
The unemployment rate in Russia is now at a very low level, it seems to be around 3%.
By investment, you probably mean external investment. Russia completely manages without them, investing funds from the National Wealth Fund or borrowing on the domestic market.
I believe that the current state of the Russian economy is quite satisfactory. Of course, it was not possible to completely avoid a fall in GDP in 2022, but it amounted to just over 2% at the end of the year, although a fall of 12% was predicted in early spring. The inflation rate at the end of the year was about 12%, which is comparable to the inflation rate in the European Union and much better than the inflation rate, for example, in the Baltics. Things are not going great, but much better than they could be.
...
You can officially have a very low unemployment, and even you can have a really low unemployment, but it is also about the type of employment you have and the salary you will get for it. This includes the fact that if the currency looses value, salaries fall comparatively.
The RF, as any other country can do without external investment, perhaps better than others I reckon since the economy is based on commodities and raw goods exports, but, as the USSR proves, it eventually makes the country less competitive and inflation creates chaos.
As resilient as it is, history proves that this does not end up well.