Replies

"First, your flippant reply dismisses the point of my post, that Russians are not some kind of isolated people who have no idea what is beyond their borders."

I understand your point, I was joking but also making a point. Their economic output does not measure up to the state of Texas, their average life expectancy as of 2015 is 8 years less than America, the average monthly income as of January 2016 in Russia was $216 US a month and inflation was somewhere between 12-15%. Also in that month the amount of unpaid wages to Russians reached 58.8 million dollars. This seems to be a normal thing in Russia where companies tell their workers, they don't have enough money to pay them.

Now, you can give us your viewpoint of what you have witnessed but statistics tell us a different story. The fact is that Russia is a petrol economy and without oil and natural gas they would not have much more economic output than poor African countries. Please name me the one product that Russia produces that everyone in America can't do without? That includes gas by the way, because we don't need theirs.

Stats show us that they are a third wolrd country with a first world military, nothing more...

One thing that you are missing is that things like life expectancy have been on a solid uptrend since the end of the Yeltsin era.

Economically, sure they have a ways to go, but the Russian picture has changed a lot in the past few years. For example, Russia is the worlds number one exporter of wheat. Other agribusiness like dairy is also growing tremendously. Also, since they have at least nominal domestic production of pretty much all the "necessities", it makes sense to look at GDP in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) which puts them sixth in the world. Your figures on inflation are also woefully outdated, as inflation is currently hovering around 2.5%.

Where I am living at the moment (Krasnodar Krai), all I see is economic activity. Import cars are replacing domestics more and more. Construction activity is off the charts, with homes and apartment buildings going up everywhere you look. Small business is literally everywhere. Sure, Russia isn't an export powerhouse (yet!), but internally, things are looking damn good. One thing is for sure: economically this country isn't dying, it is just getting started.