Russia’s economy has been severely hurt by the drop in oil prices, and as a result, the Russian government is instituting spending cuts on social services across the federation. Geopolitical Futures subscribers likely have noticed that our daily Watch List recently has sharply focused on regional economic problems in Russia. That means that Russia’s capital city accounts for more of the Russian economy than any individual region in the U.S. Located in this district, Moscow alone accounts for 21.7 percent of the entire Russian economy. According to the latest available data from the Federal State Statistical Service, the Central Federal District accounts for 35 percent of the entire Russian economy. The above map shows what percentage of the economy each of Russia’s disparate regions contributes. But for bureaucratic and governing purposes, Russia divides these 85 regions into nine larger districts. Russia is a federation, or a collection of 85 different federal subjects that range in structure from autonomous regions and republics to individual cities. One of the results of Russia’s physical size is a highly regionalized economy, as the map above shows. That still puts Russia among the top five military spenders in the world, but in absolute terms it means Russia’s military expenditures add up to roughly 10 percent of U.S. military expenditures in 2015 were 3.3 percent of GDP, and Russia’s were 5 percent of its GDP. Russia’s economy is roughly a tenth the size of the U.S.’ (the World Bank stated that Russia’s GDP in 2015 was $1.3 trillion.) According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, U.S. Russia is the largest country in the world in terms of area – almost 11 percent of the world’s landmass is sovereign Russian territory – but Russia’s economy pales in comparison to the U.S.’ According to 2016 first-quarter figures from the U.S. The first element of this analysis must be to recognize how much larger the U.S. There are many different ways to evaluate this discrepancy, but comparing the regional economies of the U.S. When we look at its moves in Syria or Eastern Europe, we keep in mind Russia’s relative strengths and weaknesses compared to its neighbors and the United States. Much of our analysis is driven by just how weak we believe the Russian Federation is. Two of the states whose powers we constantly re-evaluate are Russia and the United States. Power only derives meaning if it is evaluated in comparison. To say that one state is powerful means nothing.
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