(Putin Art) Russian economy

[Alina Israeli]

It really pays to know the facts:

The currency collapsed under Yeltsin. Putin had nothing to do with that.

Russia never was "second economy in the world", it was second military  
power in the world. Hence the 2nd GDP in 1990 http://www.theodora.com/wfb/1990/rankings/gdp_million_1.html 
  , ironically enough at the time when there was no food in stores, no  
soap, no toothpaste etc (and clothing as expensive as ever), there  
were coupons for all basic goods, and in general the country was on  
the eve of economic collapse. That was the time when the US government  
subsidized food airpackages to the Soviet Union (you would pay for  
surface rate, and the package would be shipped by air). That was the  
time when there were trucks with humanitarian aid from Germany. Sad  
memories.

Remember G7? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G7  Why 7? Because Russia's  
economy was not big enough and not free enough. In order not to offend  
Boris (with the stress on the first syllable) when the economy lived  
from one IMF loan to the next, they included Russia into G-8. The size  
of the land and the nukes have their privileges.

Now Russia is #10, ahead of the Netherlands http://econpost.com/worldeconomy/world-economy-ranking
Some states are indeed large and productive, Texas is larger than  
France. And yes, California is doing better than Russia http://econpost.com/californiaeconomy/california-economy-ranking-among-world-economies

Meanwhile Russia shrank from 1/6 of world land to 1/8. And the  
population shrank (and continues shrinking). But that's not the main  
problem.

HOWEVER, if they figure out how to include corruption into GDP, after  
all it does provide some service, they could easily get on top. And  
it's just as useful as all those rusting tanks.

What's more interesting is that there are areas where Russia is #1  
(not only in divorce rate): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_rankings_of_Russia


On Sep 1, 2013, at 3:49 PM, Robert Orr wrote:

> Over the past twenty-odd years Russia's currency has collapsed.
> It lost its empire and influence far faster than even Britain did,  
> and its
> economy dropped from second in the world to below those of the  
> Netherlands,
> Australia, and even certain individual US states, etc.


> Suggesting that Putin is psychologically privileged compared to his
> immediate predecessors might be another interesting discussion ....

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
WLC, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu






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