Russia and Ukraine

[karmaify]

yet tying themselves to the west got their GDP per capita on purchase power parity basis from slightly higher than Russia’s in 1990 to about half of Russia’s just before the war.

In fact just before the war the purchasing power of the average personal income in Ukraine ranks dead last in entire Europe, and world wide it is comparable to such underdeveloped states as Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Libya.

By all measures,  Ukraine economic performance had been calamitous, even if we were to ignore the natural resources and soviet bequeathed infrastructure.

  This was supposed to be its own thread.  But it got stuck in this thread which was written before Russia invaded the Ukraine.  That aside, I don't know what the purchasing power of the people in the Ukraine was or is.  It doesn't matter.  What does matter if the value of their country.  As for any Russian infrastructure, I'm sure that the Ukrainians would have gladly done without it and provided it for themselves.  During the times of the communist dictatorships, such as Lenin and Stalin, the Russians murdered millions of Ukrainians.  I have heard estimates from around 7 million to around 16 million.  How many were actually killed is probably hard to say. Because dead men tell no tales. On a side note, for that reason, most Ukrainians don't think of Hitler as an invader.  They think of him as a liberator.