[BobL]

“Russia is still a third-world economy, and no amount of denial is going to change that fact.”

I guess your guys also didn’t feed you the news from last week, when the World Bank also declared that Russia is a “High Income” country, meaning First World.

But that’s ok, the Russians JUST LOVE IT when the West lives in their own fantasy world...makes everything a cakewalk for them.

[adorno]

the World Bank also declared that Russia is a “High Income” country, meaning First World.

The world bank is dependent on data reported by member countries, which means that, any reports from the world bank could be dependent on faulty data coming from a corrupt country such as Russia, which lies constantly to mislead about how their doing economically and militarily, etc. China had been lying for decades about their economic growth, and the world bank accepted their data. Anybody that trusts what Russia says to any organization, is a fool, and the world bank is never going to admit that their reports should be taken with a grain of salt.

The PPP, as reported and which could be suspect, still indicates that the Russian people are not doing so great. The PPP shows that, what it would take $2 in the U.S., would take just $1 in Russia. Great, but, with Russians earning 4-5 times less yearly, their purchasing power doesn't go that far. The U.S. citizens can do a lot more with their money than the vast majority of Russians. "High Income" is a relative term and doesn't reflect the reality that, most Russians are still poor in comparison to western standards.

Thw world bank has no alternative but to accept what Russia says, but, like Reagan said, 'trust but verify", and we have no way to trust or verify anything that Russia says.

GIGO is very applicable with the world bank figures, at least when applied to anything coming out of Russia.