David Moe, former Business Analyst (1970-2007)

There are only four countries in the world which have bigger GDP’s than California, and Russia is not one of them. In fact, three US states have bigger GDP’s than Russia - California, Texas, and New York. See: California's economy is now the 5th-biggest in the world, and has overtaken the United Kingdom

1. United States $19.391 trillion

2. China $12.015 trillion

3. Japan $4.872 trillion

4. Germany $3.685 trillion

5. California $2.747 trillion

6. United Kingdom $2.625 trillion

7. India $2.611 trillion

8. France $2.584 trillion

9. Brazil $2.055 trillion

10. Italy $1.938 trillion

11. Texas $1.696 trillion

12. Canada $1.652 trillion

13. New York $1.547 trillion

14. South Korea $1.538 trillion

15. Russia $1.527 trillion

Russia is simply falling farther and farther behind the major developed countries in economic development as the years go by. Its economy is simply not growing, and its population is not growing, either. It is a vast, underdeveloped, poor country with bad economic management, although many of Putin’s minions would have you believe otherwise.

While Russians may brag about their oil reserves, that is about the only thing they have going for them. My own country of Canada, which passed Russia in GDP a few years ago, has oil reserves over twice the size of Russia’s. The fact that Canada only produces half as much oil as Russia just means its oil reserves will last four times as long as Russia’s. Russia’s oil reserves will last 22 years at current production rates, Canada’s will last over 100 years.

California’s industry is much more diversified than Russia’s. Its main industries are technology products, agriculture, and aerospace. Russia has little it can export beyond oil and gas. Canada’s economy is considerably more diversified than Russia’s, too. The largest industry is not oil but manufacturing, particularly automobiles and aircraft. Russia spends far more money than Canada on weapons, but that is a source of weakness - it is a main reason for its slow economic growth. I doubt its weapons manufacturing exceeds that of California.

In addition to most Russians (except for Putin and his friends) being very poor, life expectancies are very short in Russia indicating very poor quality of life:

Canada 82.2 years
California 80.9 years
Russia 70.5 years