That is nuts. The US was drooling over the prospects of a more “western “ Russia.
Did they do anything to save Gorbachev? Did the help when Gorbachev asked for money? They just watched in amusement from the balcony. And as a result, Putin is here.
I know this post is a bit old, but I just read it. This is total unadulterated bullshit. You literally know nothing about the history of that time, or are just deliberately misrepresenting it.
So you know the history, right?
Russia's GDP is a little bit more than Half of Japan's GDP. And a little more than half of California's GDP. I am down here in Texas. Texas GDP - $2.15 Trillion USD. Almost as much as Russia's GDP..
Rimshot!
WB disagrees, as well as reality.
GDP and PPP are two differant things.
Your PPP rate (from self reported data, btw) just means a certain predetermined set of goods and services are a little cheaper to purchase than they are in Japan.
Considering the crappy quality of goods produced in Russia, the best response is "duh".
Well, food is better (now). Weapons are definitely better (and way cheaper). Cars are worse and more expensive mainly becasue of tariffs . Electronics is the same and a bit more expensive than in US, we don't make it.
Health care itself is probably the same, but it's not as fancy as in US, and it's free. Houses as you can see from Cheburek american videos on average are not as big and fancy. But soundproofing is excellent and no need to worry about hurricane insurance.
But if you want american style house, you can buy it too, is a lot cheaper too. You can buy apartment in skyscraper too, same thing as in US, do difference.
Also you don't need a car in Russia, especially in Moscow. I just went to google maps and measured distance between my apartment and small grocery shop doors - 82 meters straight line, walking - 98 meters. Another one - 110 meters. Third one 350 meters. And bigger walmart like but smaller is 435 meters. People don't drive to groceries once a week. They go there few times a day sometimes, normally once a day.
Internet is $4/month 100mbit.
One thing which is annoyingly bad in Russia is ..... shoes. I mean you can buy normal shoes if you know where to find them, especially in big cities - normal brand name shoes. In smaller towns, chances to find them is exactly zero. Virtually everything is utter crap which uses paper in them sometimes. I would literally go and burn all of these shops. That's what I am going to do when I become President of Russia, even before making Texas Mexico again. To be fair I saw the same shoes in US too , but they were sold along normal and even brand name ones. I am talking about Walmart/Target. Normal shoe stores were not selling that crap. I remember a video of a canadian who emigrated to Russia who was showing his life in Russia and he went to one of these shoe stores. He clearly bought one of that crap made of paper. Yes it feels fine for a week. Then you need to buy new ones.