Most of the Russian economy and technology is underground. They have zero trust in banks and government so entire mining operations, factories, farms, etc operate on suitcases of cash and don’t exist on paper. I’ll bet even some military contracts, etc are handled in cash and/or diamonds.
While a good banking system and representative law can allow for greater potential growth, it also creates a government slushfund that promotes vast corruption and vote-buying.
Because of this corruption, we now have 25%-50% of our citizens brainwashed to be America-hating gibsmedats. They will blame America and riot the first second a war shuts down the EBTs and TVs.
You can’t fight a full-blown war when 25% of your citizens are destroying your cities from the inside...
Apparently the poor drunk Russian hooligans build better rocket engines than the United States...go figure.
Who doesn't?
Russia is not overrun by minorities that hate it and want it to support them
And their leader loves the nation he leads
That’s pretty strong advantage in my book to the dissolution of country and culture my government is handing my children
oh nooo,
Putin says he is going to remake the Russian Military to be bigger, stronger, more potent than ever.
Course he has NO way to pay for any of it. Snicker.
Russian export in 2012 was $524,564,991,000.
Top ten breakdown:
Mineral fuels including oil: $375,423,947,000 (71.6% of total exports)
Iron and steel: $22,601,664,000 (4.3%)
Fertilizers: $11,176,846,000 (2.1%)
Inorganic chemicals: $7,835,699,000 (1.5%)
Machinery: $7,609,061,000 (1.5%)
Aluminum: $7,281,329,000 (1.4%)
Wood: $6,731,569,000 (1.3%)
Cereals: $6,246,547,000 (1.2%)
Copper: $5,787,339,000 (1.1%)
Organic chemicals: $4,516,890,000 (0.9%)
http://www.worldstopexports.com/russias-top-10-exports/2350
This is a typical third world export mix heavily dependent on raw materials.
Compare this to South Korea with a total export of $548.8 billion in 2012 (i.e. larger than Russia)
Top ten breakdown:
Electronic equipment: $119,084,386,000 (21.7% of total exports)
Vehicles: $70,074,094,000 (12.8%)
Machinery: $58,979,883,000 (10.8%)
Mineral fuels including oil: $57,492,603,000 (10.5%)
Ships, boats and other floating structures: $37,828,429,000 (6.9%)
Optical, technical and medical apparatus: $37,611,611,000 (6.9%)
Plastics: $28,381,150,000 (5.2%)
Iron and steel: $25,375,017,000 (4.6%)
Organic chemicals: $23,284,736,000 (4.3%)
Iron or steel products: $12,467,431,000 (2.3%)
http://www.worldstopexports.com/south-koreas-top-10-exports/2302
The Russians do not know(?) that their export, without the raw materials, is only in the order of $50 billion !
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3136939/posts?page=23#23
That was a few years ago, the present figures for Russia is even worse.