The fact that the times ran with this story despite the headline meaning very little just shows how hollow so much journalism is.
> To get behind it and back it now is going to put people at an advantage, either politically or economically.
That's pretty much politician catnip. "Yes, please. We'd like some of that." And that's how the people being discussed in the article are looking at "blockchain" (I'm using quotes intentionally here) rather than a technical-oriented perspective. The article isn't about a blockchain implementation. Think of the people in the article as similar to a stereotype of investors talking about the latest buzz-worth startup. They're excited about X, have some ideas on what X could mean, but don't necessarily have a deep understanding of X itself or how it's implemented. That's how some nation states are looking at future blockchain possibilities. The quoted Russians are basically saying "America won the internet, but we'll win the future (i.e., "the blockchain").