Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Russia thrust itself to the center of two global entanglements this week - the faceoff over Iran's nuclear program and the stalled peace efforts in the Middle East—as it confidently strives to take up the mantle of an international power broker.
Hmm. Not often you read such phrases with praises about Russia in the press: «…Russia's emerging status as an energy colossus, and a renewed sense of destiny as a world power. …no disputing Russia's growing economic importance… Putin's thinking is that 'with a more successful economy, with the reemergence of Russia on the global scene as an energy superpower … Russia is taking its rightful place on the global scene.'»
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You should be careful with this "Energy colossus" language. Maybe you should examine what oil has done for Saudi Arabia and its people. Would you consider Saudi a superpower? No?
Well, surely it is an economic superpower, right? I mean, they have the largest oil reserves in the world.
What? They aren't an economic superpower either.
Hmmmmm... I wonder why?
The fact is, oil is only a raw product that is being sold by wealthy Russians (and now, Russian government) to countries who use it to manufacture real goods and products. You are familiar with the concept of "value added", I am sure. Russian industry needs to make use of their raw resources, in order to move into the realm of economic superpower or energy colossus.
There is a long long way to go, yet. GDP per capita in the US is over $40,000. Most wealthy nations have a GDP per capita of over $30,000.
Meanwhile, Russia has a GDP per capita of approximately $4000 ... despite having a huge number of billionaires (and you know very well how little these billionaires help the Russian people). There is no doubt that the Russian economy and stock market is growing (along with inflation) ... this is great for Russia ... but let's not count our chickens before the eggs are hatched.
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