And talking about the "bad 90's" I'd like to add that that time children's sport almost disappeared, a lot of ice rinks all over the country were closed and as it was mentioned earlier governmental sponsorship diminished dramatically.
I think that is the main reason. I can remember when I was a child there were ice rinks nearly in every big town in Russia but during the 90's they closed because there were no money (both Plushenko and Marinin had to leave Volgograd because the ice rink there closed, e.g.). During the last years there were some rinks opened again because figure skating became more popular again.
As for Leonova... Let's see next year. I really wish that she will go on with the same and even better results. But I'm not sure, last year there was Voronov and he also finished 4th at Europeans and 7th at Worlds plus won a silver medal at TEB and this season? Middle of nowhere...