The easiest answer is to make economic and/or political (local and global) decisions that improve the economy (diversify from enery based prodcution) so that people will have more money and thus more money to spend on sports.
Somewhat on that topic, is pay-tv sports doing well in Russia? Meaning is there plenty of it on offer and how many people have pay-tv packages? For reference, pay-tv sports in Nordic countries differs. In Sweden and Norway something like 60% of the population have a pay-tv package where as in Finland, only 30%.
How fast should the economy grow? Sorry, but there are basic laws to it. [Mod]
Russian economy is quite fast growing, but that doesn't mean we can give people say double the income without damaging the whole thing. [Mod] There is a very complicated interdependence. Saying, oh just limprove the economy is an equal of the fake Marie Antoinette quote.
Pay-tv is basically the past. The internet is agglomerating tv very fast in Russia. Faster than in many european countries. There are additional packages to be bought, but most basic packages would give you enough access to hockey to be specific.
I for my part don't even have cable at home. All I need is coming through the internets on my mobile, including tv channels. I know I am not most people, but I guess soon enough a lot of people will have it that way.
For now most households have KHL TV, Match TV and Eurosport(NHL) available through cable packaged with the basic internet access via ISP. And it is rather cheap. Additional packages are more of a thing to die hard football fans who want to follow foreign top leagues.