Why are Russians poorer than us, but they rule the world today? – bewilderment of a Canadian newspaper
Today Russia, despite economic problems, manages to rule the world, пишет Canadian newspaper National Post.
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“Russia earns less money per year than Canada. In 2016, its GDP was $1,3 trillion, roughly the same as Australia, which has a population six times smaller and a land area half that of Russia. The fact that Russia has a population of 147 million is no longer impressive: today Nigeria, Bangladesh and Brazil have more people than Russia. However, between hacker attacks on the US electoral system and the military campaign in Syria, Russia manages to dominate international affairs,” the publication claims.
“Sometimes a pocket pistol is as effective as a laser-guided bomb. Russia's military budget is only one-tenth that of the United States, Russia has fewer troops than India, and the main ship of the Russian fleet must be constantly followed by tugboats everywhere in case its systems break down. However, for a country that has masterfully learned to project influence in the world while spending quite a bit of money, this appears to be quite enough.
Crimea was captured without a single shot being fired. The Syrian campaign required just 50 aircraft and cost Russia just $500 million—the same amount of money the US spent on military training for Syrian rebels. In the case of Russia, what matters is not so much the size of its army as its demonstrable willingness to use it. Since 2000, Russia has sent its troops into battle at least five times: in Chechnya, in the border regions of the Caucasus, in Georgia, in the Donbass and, of course, in Syria,” the newspaper notes.
At the same time, the publication says: that “Russia, like Israel, never knows exactly whom it can trust.”
“Former members of the Warsaw Pact organization left almost immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The former Soviet republics, three of which are now part of NATO, did the same. Russia also faces the challenge of jihadism in the Caucasus, and its vast, sparsely populated, resource-rich Far East region borders an expansionist China. It can be said that Russia's aggressive approach to foreign policy is partly a result of its environment. If Canada had to share the 49th parallel with North Korea, Azerbaijan and a dozen other relatively unstable countries with very dubious intentions, it is quite possible that it would not behave very politely either,” the National Post does not rule out.
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