Fresh off the news that the FUSA has just launched a raft of new SANSHUNS!!!!, which inevitably will WERK REEL GUDDER ‘N’ SHIET!!!!!!!!, the Russians have responded with an almighty shrug of their shoulders. The Central Bank of Russia simply announced that it would make the ruble-yuan currency pair the primary indicator for its own setting of dollar and euro exchange rates, and everyone else in Russia got on with their day.

The Russian indifference to Western stupidity is well-founded, because it turns out, the Russian economy is the fourth-largest in the world, on the basis of what people actually buy, and has been since 2021.

That is what we learned from a recent revision to a World Bank economic outlook report released back in 2021, which was updated quite recently. Here is what the revised report itself actually says:

• The global economy was $152.4 trillion when measured in PPP terms.
• The largest economy in the world in 2021 was China, recording a PPP-based GDP of $28.8 trillion, reflecting 18.9 percent of the global GDP. The United States was the second largest, with nearly $23.6 trillion or 15.5 percent of the global GDP. India’s economy was the third largest at $11.0 trillion, accounting for 7.2 percent.
• Also in the ten largest economies group were the Russian Federation ($5.7 trillion and 3.8 percent), Japan ($5.6 trillion and 3.7 percent), Germany ($5.2 trillion and 3.4 percent), Brazil ($3.7 trillion and 2.4 percent), France ($3.6 trillion and 2.4 percent), the United Kingdom ($3.5 trillion and 2.3 percent), and Indonesia ($3.5 trillion and 2.3 percent).
• The East Asia and Pacific region accounted for 32.7 percent of PPP-based global GDP, and China contributed over half of this. Japan was the second-largest economy in the region, with a GDP of $5.6 trillion.
• The Europe and Central Asia region contributed 25.6 percent of global output, with the Russian Federation at $5.7 trillion and Germany at $5.2 trillion being the largest economies in the region. Together, the two countries contributed 28 percent of the region’s GDP.

In simple terms, Russia actually overtook Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy, by purchasing power, in 2021, and has been busy widening the gap ever since:

There is yet more to the story, though. The same set of World Bank data indicate the “hidden” or “grey” part of the Russian economy, might be as much as 40% of its GDP – that is to say, the part of the economy where transactions take place primarily in cash, and therefore are not reported to the tax authorities.

Having spent quite a bit of time in Moscow, I am a bit sceptical about that figure, because from what I have seen, the Russian payments systems are among the best and most advanced I have ever seen, and their VAT and income tax collection systems are exceptionally good. That being said, if one does not draw a regular salary, the tax department seems not to bother one very much, as I can attest from personal observations of people who live and work in Russia.

The upshot of all this is, Russia’s economy, when measured in terms of things that actually matter, is probably closer to US$8 TRILLION in size.

For comparison, India’s is nearly US$15T in size – perhaps double the Russian economy – while China’s is probably almost 5 times as large, and the FUSA’s is about 3.5 times as large.

But – and this is crucial to understand – Russia’s total population is barely 150 million.

In other words, Russia, with a MUCH smaller population base, punches FAR above its weight, relative to countries with ten times the population – or even three times.

And this goes a very long way toward explaining a fundamental failure of neoclown strategery over the past 20 years.

How many times have we heard from bloodthirsty, warmongering, BIBLICALLY stupid asshats like the late and thoroughly unmoured John McCain (may he burn in Hell), that Russia is merely “a gas station masquerading as a country”? (The other favourite variation is, “Russia is just a gas station with nuclear weapons”.)

Or that Russia’s GDP is barely the size of Italy’s, or Spain’s?

Or that Russia is a backward and broken Communist nation, ruled by a megalomaniacal tyrant, and has very fragile institutions and power centres, which would fall over, if only the FUSA had the balls to push them hard enough?

All of it – EVERY LAST BIT – is nonsense. It is ALL a lie. And the economic data now prove it.

Russia’s economy is far deeper, broader, larger, and more powerful than anyone in the West imagined – even people like me, who often travelled there, and who lived there, and who therefore understand, at least to some extent, how dynamic and developed the Russian economy actually is.

One can certainly make the argument that Russian factories and industries are less efficient than their Japanese or German counterparts, and I would not disagree with this sentiment. However, one absolutely CANNOT argue with a straight face that they are smaller – certainly not anymore.

If anyone among the neoclowns, presstitutes, and other assorted morons who consider themselves the “ruling elite” in the West had taken more than 5 minutes to think things through, they might have realised that a country which does what Russia does, is not a fifth-rate broke and backward power.

Consider the following facts about Russia:

• It produces near-as-dammit as much raw steel as the FUSA does, with less than half the population;
• Russia has a fully domestic passenger aircraft industry, and is capable of producing fully indigenous two-engine narrow-body AND four-engine wide-body aircraft;
• Its military industries are entirely self-contained and self-sufficient, and are fully capable of producing armaments at a rate, and of a quality, that the Western military-industrial complex simply cannot match;
  • Russia today produces over 4.5 MILLION artillery rounds a year – outstripping the ENTIRE NATO bloc, and by a substantial margin;
  • Russia is one of only two non-Western nations to design, develop, and manufacture its own full-fledged fifth-generation aircraft – and, unlike the F-22, the latest iteration of the Su-57 actually IS a true fifth-gen fighter, due to its 3-D thrust-vectoring;
  • Russia produces a wide array of main battle tanks, in at least three different classes, whereas the FUSA still has not developed any kind of successor to its increasingly ageing M1 platform, and Germany’s Leopard 2 has already proven largely useless in the Eastern European theatre;
  • Russia’s submarine fleets are, if not the best in the world, then right up there alongside the US Navy’s, and they can produce up to 8 state-of-the-art Yasen’/Severodvinsk-class nuclear attack submarines for the cost of ONE as-yet-unbuilt US Columbia-class;
  • Russian AD is hands-down the best in the world, no one disputes this, and it is entirely indigenous in terms of production and technical design;
  • It has by far the world’s largest and most powerful nuclear icebreaker fleet;
• Russia’s capabilities in atomic power generation are qualitatively way ahead of most of the West, including France and the FUSA – the UK is only JUST figuring out how to build its own Small Modular Reactors, whereas Russia already has a prototype floating SMR in the Far East;
• The Russians manufacture and maintain their own rolling stock now, without needing to resort to German technology or assistance;
• They maintain their own fully indigenous space programme, with a brand-new cosmodrome built in the Far East, and with their own fully domestic rockets, built and maintained by their own people, whereas NASA has not made any significant advances in the area of space rocketry for decades, outside of the private sector;

They even make and manufacture their own microchips, of the 40-60nm variety. They have their own lithography in the works for 10nm and 7nm designs, which would put them much closer to the leading edge of microchip development.

Their government systems run on a domestic Linux distribution that no longer relies on Western companies like Microsoft to supply technical knowledge and expertise.

They have their own Google analogue – Yandex, which is in many respects actually quite a lot better. Their equivalents of Amazon are Wildberries and OZON, and they are, in most respects, superior – so much so that even AliExpress, which is so dominant in China and much of Asia, has trouble competing. Amazog is nowhere to be found in that market.

The list goes on, and on, AND BLOODY ON. In a HUGE range of extremely technical and difficult fields, the Russians are world leaders or contenders. They maintain their own native industries that might not be quite as efficient as what you find in China or the West, but in terms of technical capability and prowess, are every bit as good.

Does any of that sound like the achievements of a backward and broken power?

To put things into perspective, there is NO Western nation – not even the FUSA – that can lay claim to such a long and comprehensive list of achievements. American shipbuilding, in particular, is a pale and terrible shadow of its former self. America’s aeronautical engineering crown jewel, Boeing, has shown the world that it can no longer build functional aircraft. (I exaggerate minutely.) Its premier weapons developer, Lockheed Martin, cannot develop a fighter aircraft that actually works and does what it is supposed to do.

The United Kingdom is a pathetic remnant of its former self – and it may soon find itself with ZERO domestic steel production, if ArcelorMittal carries out its threat to abandon the UK market. Britain no longer has a domestic aircraft production industry – whereas it once boasted the ability to produce fully domestic fighter and bomber aircraft. Its actual aircraft carriers no longer work. Its entire military force structure is under severe strain, and it no longer has any sort of serious manufacturing base. Britain is essentially a giant banker’s guild masquerading as a serious power.

The situation is far, FAR worse for most of the European nations – once proud and great nations with their own industrial bases and resources, now impoverished remnants of what they used to be.

That is why the West cannot, and never could, defeat Russia – not economically, not militarily, and certainly not in the clash of civilisations. Russia outstrips the West comprehensively in virtually EVERY aspect, and has done for YEARS.

This is the country that everyone “misunderestimated”, because the Elites never stopped to think about the realities of a country that can build its own aircraft and maintain its own satellites and space programme. That is NOT a weak country. That is a country with a phenomenally deep and powerful industrial base, and it is not a nation to trifle with at leisure.

It is instead a nation to treat with a modicum of respect. But the Elites could never bring themselves to do that, so they stumbled headlong into a war which they have no hope of ever winning.

Meanwhile, the rest of us, who have at least the sense God gave a honey badger, can see the disaster unfolding. All we can do is try to prepare for it as best we can. If we are very, very lucky, perhaps we will see the same Elites destroyed by the very calamity they created.

One can hope, after all.

And when the dust settles, let us also hope the Russians have the decency and the charity to help Europe and the West rebuild. God only knows, we do not deserve any such grace.