The newly released information revealed that Russia is now the largest economy in Europe and also the world's fifth for the very first time since Soviet times

Damn, sanctions really hitting them hard. Utterly devastated.

When ur sanctioned so McDonald's "leaves" but the McDonald's means of production are still in Russia so you can reopen McDonald's without most of the money going to America
- So what you're saying is...Russia seized the means of burger production?
- There is also one thing those who were forced to leave the Russian market had to sell their companies at a very low price or government just seized it with backhand . Means first it went to some shady private players and then it to the close confidants of Putin who are just state puppets.

So Russia is technically in the G5 ;)

It feels so good to see the west wane and by its own accord. No one invaded or bombed or colonized the west, they are destroying themselves by themselves.

btw Russia is not in Europe. Europe is a term for the EU. Russia is now Asia.

Russia is as much a part of Europe as Pakistan is India. don't give me the geography excuse because it's the Indian subcontinent too
- Europe itself doesn't exist, it is just north west Asia.
- good bit
- What is a "Europe" anyway? On what basis do we decide that Europe is its own continent separate from Asia while India is just a subcontinent?
- btw Russia is not in Europe. Europe is a term for the EU. Russia is now Asia.
  
  TIL Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the UK are Asia cause they are not in the EU!
  
  Not to mention Ukraine... Right?

West forgor that Russia had been sanctioned for decades during Soviet era.

Perhaps so, but now Russia no longer has McDonald's or Pizza Hut.

hmmm, the russian economy grew after the fast food chains responsible for the downfall of the ussr left

HMMMM 🤔 🤔
- Incoherence of the union center and its parts falling into civil war with each other were somewhat more important than fast food chains IMVHO.
  
  But if not for GKChP coup, it could be preserved as a single state.
  
  These guys turned on jammers over half of USSR's territory, sent troops to take control of TV and radio broadcasting stations, put tanks to Moscow streets and then just went "oops, we surrender".
  
  This may not seem important for many people, but they also participated on Azeri side in NK, guaranteeing Armenia breaking away, and tried to use force in Baltics leading to them breaking away.
  
  I guess the reason they surrendered was they saw what their actions in such a short period of time caused, so wanted someone else to take the blame.
  
  It's not all black and white, of course. If not for 1993 coup (because Yeltsin did just that), Russia itself would still be technically very Soviet (weird enough, more so than under USSR where party organs would bear power which on paper belonged to Soviets ; so - somewhere in 1989-1993 what was on paper almost became the reality), which would make its foreign and domestic policy different from what happened IRL.
So you're saying Russian life expectancy is also about to rise?
Permanently Deleted
Russia shall either be a superpower or have Pizza Hut. It cannot have both. History shows to us that this is as an absolute truth.

This is why I'm voting Biden. A vote for Biden is a vote for de facto global wealth distribution where India, Africa, MENA, etc benefit from being pushed into the same bloc with Russia

Wut

It looks like Germany is still ahead by official measure but the gap is much closer than before. Definitely larger than California and Italy. The two places Russia's economy gets compared to every time it gets brought up.

Germany is also a much better comparison because Germany had an actual industrial economy until recently.
- Thank god they stand on the right side of history and are dismantling fossil fuel industries

This is where Russia should be.

The text is from August though, what new info does it mention?

well since then Russian industrial activity has continued to grow https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-factory-activity-grows-fastest-pace-over-six-years-sept-pmi-2023-10-02/
- Oh, I would expect so, just wanted to confirm what the initial link was about

Hahahahah

Now if it could just go all the way-

I think a lot about what could've been if USSR embraced Deng style reforms.
- World would be very different, the USSR would be THE most productive country on earth considering it had a head start on China even with the massive destruction caused by the nazi invasion.
  
  Also i think that the USSR foreign policy ultimately did more damage than good to the communist movement worldwide, the chinese mutual development through trade is a much better policy. But then again, without the USSR foreign policy i think the Cuban revolution would've failed.

The source is some random site that adds more than a trillion to the usual estimate because of the "informal economy". So they claim Russia has a trillion dollar corruption/black market lol.

I understand critical support for Russia, but all this uncritical support with zero critical thinking is lame.

Russia is a fascist reactionary dictatorship. Just because they oppose the US doesn't mean everything else they do is good as well.

Russian now spends a whole 40% of state expenditure on security and the armed forces. That's not a good sign for them.

fascist

how?

reactionary

yes, unfortunately

dictatorship

every country is a dictatorship of one class over the others
- Isn't fascism a component of capitalist societies that gets turbo charged when capital finds itself in a state of crises? Sort of a self defense mechanism to keep the "left" from actually making gains among the population?
- Ticks a lot of the fascist boxes for me, mandatory nationalism and historical revisionism in school, the whole All-Russia "Young Army" National Military Patriotic Social Movement Association, massive internal security rosgvardia, claiming other countries belong to them reminds me of Lebensraum etc.
Russia is a fascist reactionary dictatorship

People will now resort to label any country that opposes the west as a dictatorship (and not in the marxist sense), even if it openly celebrates bourgeois elections every 6 years.

Inb4 "but they are rigged!!1!"

So are they everywhere else, either by limiting by design the choices (see: USA) or by limiting the powers that democracy grants to the people. You seem to be Swedish: you cannot even choose your own head of state.

Edit: my country constantly suffers from scandals every election in which governing parties shove thousands of fake votes by mail into the system and no one has ever called it a dictatorship simply because it is part of The West™.
- You seem to be Swedish
  
  Lmao
Russia is fascist because fascism is when you oppose the USA.
Regardless of what the article says, it is well known that GDP (even per capita PPP) is a really shitty measure of a country's productive capabilities or resources.

Russian now spends a whole 40% of state expenditure on security and the armed forces. That's not a good sign for them.

I disagree, of course Russia is spending a ton on the war and yea no shit the war is hurting Russia and Russians but state spending doesn't mean much. Russia can produce its own military gear. India meanwhile despite having double the Russia's GDP PPP is struggling to indegenize its military equipment.
- We should be better than the people who swallow western propoganda without every questioning it. Believing everything with lousy sources that is pro Russia just makes you look silly and contrarian. Critical, not uncritical support.

Well yes ! that's what an economy of war will do. until it doesn't

Except Russia's nowhere close to being a war economy right now.

Russia is in Europe?

somebody failed their geography class
Eurasia (Europe and Asia)
75% of Russia's population lives in Europe. Not only that, but even if we don't count the Asian part of Russia, the European one would still be biggest and most populous country in Europe.

What is with you people constantly trying with the "dastardly Asiatics" dogwhistles.
- OK if Russia is divided with one part considered Europe and one part of considered Asia then it makes sense. I always perceived Russia as Asia.
  
  Do you have a link to an authorative source that clearly defines the line that divedes Russia into its European and Asian parts?
There is no such thing as Europe.

Lots of bootlickers ITT. Why defend war criminals?

Is this actually your first time stumbling onto a lemmygrad thread in 5 months??? Lmao
any war crimes committed by Russia pale in comparison to Ukraine's, not to mention NATO as a whole