When will Russia become the world's fifth biggest economy? Don't ask Vladimir Putin.
Our thanks to Julia Davis for drawing our attention to this trend. Sources for Putin’s statements in 2007, 2008, 2011, again in 2011, 2012, and 2018. In 2013, Putin said Russia had entered the world’s top five biggest economies, but only in terms of gross domestic product. In “key indicators such as labor productivity,” he said, there was a “two- to three-fold gap” with developed countries.
Photo on front page: Alexey Druzhinin / Sputnik / EPA / Scanpix / LETA
