>Russia’s GDP is only slightly higher than that of Mexico.
They also happen to be the only western state that’s reproducing. Russia’s always been an economic backwater, but as it stands now they’re lot more likely to survive as a white and Christian nation that most of Europe.
JohnyBoy, you need to live there as I have. Any true patriot of America and lover of Russia and her people would not be pleased with the moral havoc the Putin regime hath wrought.
Other facts:
Russia has one of the highest rates of abortion in the world. The practice was embedded in the Soviet culture..(The Soviet Union was the first modern country to legalize it in 1920s.) Yes things are getting better now as is life expectancy, which if you do your research, is currently akin to that of North Korea at 70 years old.
The fastest reproducing demographic in Russia is Muslim. Muslims are even the majority in parts of the Chechen and Volga regions/Tatarstan. Chechnya is effectively a semi independent Islamic-theo fascist state led by Putin’s pal Kadyrov, while the Muslim population in the Volga are isolated from both the Russian state and the Chechen state and has therefore been a hotbed of radicalization and ISIS recruitment.
In case you needed any reminding, terrorism has taken the lives of more citizens in Russia than the recent scares in neighboring Europe. Remember the bombing of hundreds of schoolchildren Beslan? (2004) and more recent ones as well. (The metro bombing in St. Petersburg last April barely registered on the Western media due to Trump and the faux collusion coverage.
Russia’s land mass spans 9 time zones yet they have half the population of the USA and the same brithrate as much smaller European countries.
More Muslims populate Moscow than any European city.
Russia relies heavily on its economic and military partnerships with Iran and Syria.
Some notes:
* Ilan Berman, a Soviet-born Ukrainian-American (who is also quite compliemntary of the Trump administration’s appproach to Russia thusfar) is a great go-to expert with regard to the Russian demographic crisis and the country’s relationship with the Middle East and China.
* As a Christian, I do not believe Christianity is an ethnicity. It is by Faith we are saved. Jesus will lead Muslims to himself as well. Hence the countless conversions in the Muslim world taking place as we speak.
Also to add to my first response to your message:
In addition to the Soviet holdover culture of abortion and the demographic crisis posed by an increasingly radicalizing and reproducing Muslim minority,
Russia is in the middle of a major HIV epidemic. Currently one of the only places in the world where rates are rising not declining. Feel free to look up what Evgeny Roizman, the mayor of Ekaterinaburg has to say about it.
And the Chinese are eyeing the empty lands of the Russian Far East. (Which at some points in history may have very well belonged to them anyway.)
This all being said, Russia is still an amazing country with great potential to both preserve their unique heritage while integrating with the rest of the world and being a major player for the good.