Replies

Your sarcastic tirade is not based on facts.
What ‘explosive growth’ in the Baltic are you talking about? Estonia is a single semi-decent Baltic state end the rest are basket cases living off EU sibsidies like they were living off Russian sibsidies under USSR. These ‘thriving’ states are set to lose up to a half of their populations by 2050.
‘Prosperous Ukraine’ is even more laughable. Ukruin with its ‘Western lean’ is not an example even for African countries anymore. It keeps hitting one bottom after another ever since ‘embraced Western choice’.

[What ‘explosive growth’ in the Baltic are you talking about? Estonia is a single semi-decent Baltic state end the rest are basket cases living off EU sibsidies like they were living off Russian sibsidies under USSR. ]

Relative to 2010, per capita incomes in the Baltics are up at least 50%. Russia’s number appears to be unchanged. If you want to figure out the role of resource extraction in Russia’s economy, all you have to do is compare Norway’s (a significant oil producer) per capita output to Sweden’s. Norway’s number is 60% higher higher than Sweden’s.

The Baltics have negligible natural resources relative to Russia’s. For both economies to have similar economic profiles once you remove the resource extraction component, Russia’s GDP per capita should be 50% larger than the Baltics’. In reality, however the Baltics have a 50% larger GDP per capita than Russia. Thus, it would appear that Russia’s the economic basket case, the oil ticks of the north, not the Baltics.