eli5 – Russia has an economy smaller than Canada or Italy. How does it continue to be a threatening, great power without going bankrupt?
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People have already mentioned their spending, but an important aspect to understand is Maskirovka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_military_deception
Denial and Deception is official Military Doctrine of Russia.
Russias economy is smaller than Canada or Italy in terms of nominal GDP.
However, when we adjust the economy by PPP (Purchasing power parity), ie how much work and how many bodies you can buy with that money inside the country. Then it’s a somewhat different story.
Adjusted for PPP Russias economy is about twice the size of Canadas. On top of that Russia is spending much more of its economy on the military (20% of government spending). Canada could also do that, if it was willing to reduce citizen access to public services and shifts its economy to a more warlike stance. So effectively Russia is spending 20 times what Canada is doing on its military in terms of internal economic muscle. The russian military is also mainly conscripted, so while Canada pays some $40000 a year the pay for your average russian conscript is $360 a year plus food, housing and clothing.
So to sum it up. Russia can continue to be a threatening power because its citizens are willing to accept worse conditions (less consumer goods, smaller housing, worse service and medical care, fewer freedoms and greater sacrifices) and it can much more effectively leverage its economy towards national production of military hardware.
They don’t, but spending a fuckload of stolen cash on propaganda and US needing a big bad enemy that they “can’t” fix, helps.
Are they though? They’re rich with oil and gas so other countries tip toe around them to not upset their fuel delivery arrangements and they are good with cyber “terrorism” but their military is full of old useless gear and they don’t have enough personel/gear/money for an actual war. That’s why they do the internet thing instead. They also have nukes so there’s that.
Russia isn’t a global threat. Survey after survey finds most global citizens see the USA as the greatest threat. Russia is just the Democratic Party’s boogieman.
They have the will to do it.
Canada or Italy isn’t willing to spend as much on military, and neither is everyone around Russia.
Or in the case of Poland, they can’t build up the forces quick enough to make a difference.
It is a trade-off.
Being threatening great power costs a lot and is not necessarily worth.
Eventually it will become bankrupt if continues doing that, which is at the end of day what ended USSR.
There are a few reasons. First, they are one of the few nuclear states in the world. Second, they have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and so they can veto UN sanctions and military intervention that’s against their interests. They are very they can’t compete with the USA, China, or the EU economically, but that’s not their strategy.
They basically spend a very large part of their budget on their military plus young men are conscripted meaning they have a very large military overall. Off course this goes at the cost of their economy but the Russian government really doesn’t care since anyone somewhat remotely important is most likely very rich already.
Russian economy cannot be measured from the government coffers as that exists only as a vehicle to transfer wealth to the people that run (own) it.
You would have to tally up the wealth of Putin and all his cronies to come to a real estimate if Russian power, you can’t do that because this wealth is spread around the world is states that guarantee financial secrecy.
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