Posted on 07/17/2022 3:00:06 PM PDT by AndyJackson
Is Russia worthy of being called a “great power,” let alone a superpower? Not to kick someone when they’re down, but it’s difficult to argue that Vladimir Putin represents anything other than a middling regional state, albeit the largest country in the world and one with nuclear weapons.
In the first place, until the Russo-Ukraine War, consider how irrelevant and inconsequential Russia was. For the most part, regarding international relations, Russia scarcely mattered. Moscow has nary a footprint in the Middle East (mainly Syria) and is nonexistent in Asia and other parts of the world. Russia has lost influence in India, Venezuela, Africa, and even North Korea.
Russia is barely a developed country. The most generous economic data gave the country a GDP of around $4.4 trillion in 2020, putting it behind Canada and South Korea, and barely ahead of Brazil and Mexico....
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
Forget Putin's drone directed artillery, Iskander's and hypersonic missiles. Forget that after sanctions his economy has improved, and doesn't have supply chain issues because it makes its own stuff - including computer chips as we have learned. He drools and his country is backwards.
We must be paying dangerous fools like this because the people listening to him in the Pentagon are dangerous fools.
GDP is a worthless measure of snow economy nowadays.
Literally, a government prints a trillion and spends a trillion and !poof! - a trillion is added to the GDP.
Have you ever actually used an IC made by the Russians?
You rattle off things that aren’t true today for the very reasons they haven’t been true for years. The communists have always had grocery store issues. Do not kid yourself the stores in Eussia look nothing like a modern grocery store
Russia will always be great at Macho
Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.
Next question.
Define “great”...
What are the relevant attributes?
Then, the question could be examined...
Not so. GDP figures are based on the inflation adjusted net value of economic activity, not on the money supply.
Is America?
I know. All that stuff that Russia launches is just falling out of the sky going hither and yon. Sadly it is falling on Ukrainians who are dying by the hundreds as the incompetent Russians can't find their way home and are retreating to the East lurching drukenly threatening the safety of everyone around them. Their maps are bad and their compasses don't even work.
Only because of nukes.
More pworried about our great power status. Russia does not have the military might of the much larger old USSR; but Russia is making more effective use of the power that it does have, while we are abandoning our equipment and replacing our warriors with women, gays, and people in it for the money.
Russia has immense resources and potential, unfortunately it also has Russians.
That makes them a dangerous nuclear waste dump. If their nukes work as well as their Army…they likely don’t work and the are leaking stuff all over the place.
A great country is civilized. They treat their citizens well. They have decent infrastructure, education, and justice systems. They have a system of government that is derived from and subject to the people.
A great country protects their people and can protect their national interests.
A great country adds to the world in terms of science, the arts, and culture.
Russia comes up pretty short on almost all of those metrics.
Just more neocon propaganda. Calling Russia “inconsequential”? When Europe starts scrambling for overpriced gas and their economies are in ruin, let’s see how “inconsequential” they are. And when Russia sets up an alternative commodity based monetary system with China and the other BRICS+ countries, let’s see how “inconsequential” that is. The author of this article is an idiot.
Europe is withering in its own stupidity while Russia is collecting record oil revenue.
Russia is about to gain 70-80% of Ukrainian's GDP in war the Russians tried to avoid but the Biden regime was determine to start.
Does Russia have the ability to intimidate nearby states? And does Russia have influence in places far from its borders?
The answer to both questions is yes. So Russia is a great power.
Now, does Peru have the ability to intimidate nearby states? And does Peru have influence in places far from its borders?
The answer to both questions is no. So Peru is a not great power.
(No disrespect meant to Peru. Some of my best friends are Peruvians.)
Now numerous powers, Russia, China, the Globalists, and the Greens are all working to destroy Pax Americana.
The world prospered more than any other time in history under Pax Americana.
It will fall into barbarism and starvation if Pax American is destroyed (which may well happen).
Forget that after sanctions his economy has improved, and doesn’t have supply chain issues because it makes its own stuff
—
Take it up with the Russian Statistical Bureau’s Industry Report for May.
Manufacturing:
Passenger Cars down 97%
Buses down 77%
Railroad Locomotives down 63%
Railroad Carriages down 52% (in part due to ball bearing shortage).
Passenger Railroad Cars down 40%
Elevators down 35%
Pumps down 30%
Electrical Motors down 50%
Glass down 61%
Household Goods down 63%
Refrigerators down 58%
This seems to indicate the contraction of the Russian GDP will be tremendous: close to 50%
Oil and Gas Revenue of The Russian Budget:
In April it was 1.9T rubles
In May was 170B rubles
In June it was 720B rubles
Prior to the war, it was 1T rubles per month. Seems to indicate the oil and gas industry is in contraction also
Gazprom (a monopoly) released its statistics:
Production and export of NG
NG production fell 10% from 280Bcm (billion cubic meters) to 250Bcm, period of Jan 1-July 15.
NG export fell by 33% from 107Bcm to 72Bcm, same period.
As for making its own stuff:
HAHAHAHA
They have to import low grade chips from China.
They have no high-grade ball bearing factories, and were relying on Sweden;
Making lithographic equipment - the Dutch and the Taiwanese cut them off, ending their dreams of making their own chips.
Russia is a third or fourth world county, getting ready to descent into the fifth by returning there economy back to the horribly failed command and control soviet model; its citizens have been told the way of life for the past 20 years is over and will not come again for 40 more.
Which is why the EuroWeenies are deucing their drawers like a Biden over what's going to happen on July 22nd, this Friday.
Will Nordstream 1 come back on line? TOTALLY irrelevant and inconsequential.
What U.S. states have higher GDP than Russia?
California has the highest gross domestic product among U.S. states. Vermont has the lowest. Russia’s GDP would rank fourth, behind New York and ahead of Florida. Ukraine would rank 31st.Mar 4, 2022
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