About the use of Russian Roulette in Smallpt

I was taking a look at Smallpt (http://www.kevinbeason.com/smallpt), more specifically at the Russian Roulette part. Actually, RR is used in two places along the code: first, to determine ray termination; and second, for the rendering of dielectrics.

That is the code for the ray termination case (expanded code version):

// p = maximum reflectance
// fr = BRDF
double p = fr.x > fr.y && fr.x > fr.z ? fr.x : fr.y > fr.z ? fr.y : fr.z;

if ( ++depth > 5 )
if ( erand48(Xi) < p )
fr = fr * ( 1 / p );
else
return obj.emission;


After five bounces, RR is used to determine if the ray path continues or not. If it continues, the BRDF is scaled to compensate for it. This is Ok for me.

RR is also used in a second code segment to select between refraction or transmission during the rendering of dielectrics (expanded code version):

double Re = R0 + ( 1 - R0 ) * cost * cost * cost * cost * cost;
double Tr = 1 - Re;
double P = .25 + .5 * Re;
double RP = Re / P;
double TP = Tr / ( 1 - P );

if ( depth > 2 )
if ( erand48(Xi) < P )
else
else


According to the code above, the path branches recursively if the ray has bounced up to two times. After two bounces, however, RR is used to select the path to be followed. This is also Ok for me.

What is a bit confusing is the fact that the radiance returned by both possible non-branching paths (refraction and transmission) is scaled. I understand that there are different probabilities regarding reflection and transmission. However, if for instance Re = 0.3 and Tr = 0.7, and 100 rays strike the surface, about 30% of the rays will be reflected and 70% of will be transmitted due RR. In this case, I understand that there is no path termination neither energy loss, so there wouldn't be anything to compensate for.

Thus, my first two questions are: why are these radiances scaled? Should they be scaled, or would it work without scaling at all?

My third question is related to the scaling factors: Why the author has used P, RP and TP instead of Re and Tr?