Russia's Economy Has Shrunk So Much It's Now Almost The Same Size As Spain

Business INsider via Yahoo! News ^ | 12-2-2014 | Jim Edwards

[Pan_Yan]

The decline in the price of oil, Western economic sanctions against the nation following its invasion of Ukraine, and the collapse of the Russian rouble that resulted, has decimated Russia's economy.

Now Russian GDP has shrunk so much it is no longer the world's eighth largest economic power, according to The Telegraph. Instead, Putin's Russia is now carries roughly the same economic weight as ... Spain:

Russia has lost its ranking as the world’s eighth biggest economy, shrinking in just nine months from a $2.1 trillion petro-giant to a mid-size player comparable with Korea or Spain.

For the past several years, Spain has been regarded as one of Europe's more feeble economies, with 1 in 4 Spaniards unemployed. Spain's GDP was about $1.4 trillion in 2013, according to the World Bank. Spain was the 13th biggest economy on the planet until Putin ordered tanks into the Crimea.

Now it is likely that Italy, India, Canada, and Australia are all more economically significant than Russia.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Yeah but what other country has a leader who likes to ride horses topless?

You just wait until Hillary assumes command! :)

[Sam Gamgee]

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer country.

[Sam Gamgee]

I agree. That SOB FDR did whatever he could, without declaring war, to push the Japanese in a position of war or economic demise. The oil embargo was essentially a declaration of war.

[Sam Gamgee]

I think that IS the argument to deal with Putin harshly. He does play for keeps, so playing political footsies with him will be a disaster. I say kick Russia out of the G8 and G20.

[ForYourChildren]

Bkmk

[ansel12]

So Russia is suicidal now and wants to end itself in nuclear fire, so WE better do what?

I don’t think that now that Russia is weak and small and not an empire, that after 60 years of not wanting to be destroyed in nuclear war, that suddenly they are itching to end it all in nuclear suicide because they want to keep invading countries and are meeting criticism and economic repercussions.

[x_plus_one]

Well with all those nukes and bomb shelters and bomb drills and readiness planning you wonder what the Russians are thinking what with all the economic destruction coming from ‘the west’ which is really The New World Order of unelected bureaucrats.

[kabar]

Agree with what The Japanese were an aggressive, imperial nation that sought expansion and domination. To suggest that FDR is at fault is pure nonsense.

Before the US oil embargo in July 1941, the Japanese had already invaded China and Indochina. They had already signed a tripartite agreement with Hitler and Mussolini.

The Japanese had already planned to hit Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. long before the oil embargo. War was inevitable. It is too bad we were not better prepared and that was not FDR;s fault.

[bassmaner]

So Russia is suicidal now and wants to end itself in nuclear fire, so WE better do what?

My worry is that because we're currently being 'led' by such a completely evil bastard, Putin may make a calculation that Russia could pull off a first strike against the US and 0bozo will refuse to order a retaliation.

[roadcat]

Well, ours rides something topless, but I’m sure it ain’t a horse............….

TMI - now I won't be able to sleep tonight if an image pops in my head. Please, no pics of moochele of any kind.

[ansel12]

NATO and the United States and the forces facing Russia are bigger than just the remaining two years of Obama.

Besides, you may notice that even now we are doing most of what we should be doing in regards to our NATO alliance, we just conducted military exercises inside of Ukraine and in Poland and are moving tanks and troops into more forward positions.

[roadcat]

If there is any comparability to what Japan did and what Russia is doing now, it is that both seized parts of countries and established puppet governments.

There is an additional comparison. Japan had a previous war with China, in which they would have owned China except western powers (most notably the USA) forced them to stop and have a truce. Japan had a strong resentment in the 1930s to the USA doing that decades earlier. Both Japan in the 1930s, and Russia today wanted to recapture former conquests or territory. What Germany did in the 1930s is similar, having lost big in WWI; they wanted to reclaim what was lost.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Poor Vlad!

We should take up a collection...
.

[Grampa Dave]

Vladimir Putin’s worst nightmare may be happening right now
Is Russia’s tanking economy making its leader vulnerable?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102235487?__source=xfinity|mod&par=xfinity