my proposal is to even out the teching cost for OST and SOV... if you think that this is a bad idea then explain appropriately
The game must be assymetric in order to have some challenge. Otherwise you are just playing AOE2 with some fancy graphics and machine guns.
Get the idea, if you as russian are not putting pressure into your oponent, to halt or cripple their fuel supply, thats a mistake you and only you are making. There is no balance issue there, its the game design itself.
Ps. If you really want to talk about balance then start looking at those details, all of them, not just plain math (ie SU fuel vs OST fuel). Keep track of the things make factions strong/weak/fast