Russia Economy

With yet some anomalies in its economy and market, Russia, the world’s nucleus of a former superpower, has still an emerging market. One of the anomalies lies in its exports, based on resources, and the other one has to do with its technical talent in aerospace, nuclear engineering, etc. This unique emerging market found a way to integrate itself into the wide web of world economy of the present and also future, with resemblances to China and India in the way this emergence will take place, on a larger scale.

The classification of the World Bank, based on income and area, 2 years ago, places Russia in the upper middle-income economies, below Europe and other Central Asian regions. Russia’s entire surface comprises 17.1 millions of square kilometers, out of which forests alone occupy 8.1 millions of square kilometers.
Major industries in the country include construction, textiles, foodstuffs, hip building and agricultural mining. The value additions these sectors brought for the year 2004, was 35.5 of the percentage of the total GDP of the country. The Gross National Income in Russia for 2004, in US $ was estimated at 491.0 billions, having a GNI per capita of $ 3,410.0 of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Reaching over $1,250 billion at the exchange rates of 2007 Russia's GDP went up by 8.1% during that year, compared to the year before that. However, tight government budget as well as inflation of approximately 10%, have led to this increase in the GDP this while oil prices made it go down and ruble appreciation, at its own turn, slowed it.

In 2007 unemployment reached 5.9%, down from 10.4% in 2000, while that same year, 2007, Russia’s industrial output grew by 6.3% compared to the previous year, since the growth in investment and consumption demand both contributed to this rise. As of 2008, Russia's GDP is estimated to grow from $1,289,582 million (as registered last year), to $3,462,998 million by 2013. The increase is thus a staggering 168%. What this means for Russia is easy to guess: Russia will be the second largest economy in Europe, based on the purchasing power.

As years passed, Russia has been confronted with a merchandise trade balance. Natural gas and crude oil are just a few of the major goods the country exports to such countries as Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and China, while it imports items such as food, fuel and energy and also capital goods, mainly from Ukraine, China, Germany and Japan.
Russia is the most industrialized country of the ex-Soviet republics. The United States of America, China and some European countries are Russia’s major economic competitors. Russia strives to become a global intermediary between West and East, North and South and the Muslim and Christian worlds, the edifice of regional incorporation in Eurasia. Russia sees itself as twenty-first century’s intellectual leader, as, in the future, it could render ideas in the field of technology and science. It would also spread a ‘universal’ and ‘integrated’ view of the world, which would cut across Western insular and unilateral systems of value and modernize the non-Western ones.

By the time Putin’s presidency ended, Moscow was focused mainly on applying propaganda and media pressure on organizations and elites in Europe and the US. Any somewhat serious attempts of engaging with the US constructively are considered condemned to failure. PR campaigns and propaganda ensure the exact opposite: the relationship between Russia and the United States, the world’s current leading power will not ameliorate.

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