Here is a rather shallow analysis, but I think the differences are stark enough to make the point.<\/p>\n
A Tale of Two Economies: Russia and the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nAccording to 2016 first-quarter figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. GDP is around $18.1 trillion. Russia\u2019s economy is roughly a tenth the size of the U.S.\u2019 (the World Bank stated that Russia\u2019s GDP in 2015 was $1.3 trillion.) According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, U.S. military expenditures in 2015 were 3.3 percent of GDP, and Russia\u2019s were 5 percent of its GDP. That still puts Russia among the top five military spenders in the world, but in absolute terms it means Russia\u2019s military expenditures add up to roughly 10 percent of U.S. military spending.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The world\u2019s top economy: the US vs China in five charts<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nBoth the IMF and the World Bank now rate China as the world\u2019s largest economy based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), a measure that adjusts countries\u2019 GDPs for differences in prices. In simple terms, this means that because your money stretches further in China than it would in the US, China\u2019s GDP is adjusted upwards.<\/p>\n And it won\u2019t be too long before China\u2019s economy surpasses the US\u2019s by other measures, too. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) predicts it will happen in 2029.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n