Is Trump trying to be Putin, or is Putin trying to be Trump? It’s difficult to tell sometimes with the incessant lies and bravado to pamper their fragile egos and pump up their horrific legacies. While the leaders of the other four BRICS nations were gathering in South Africa for a summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his underlings that the Russian economy is thriving, exceeding that of Germany. In reality, it’s not.
According to state-owned Sputnik News, Putin told the national Council on Strategic Development and National Projects that Russia’s economy has filled the holes left by sanctions from foreign nations for Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine–although, of course, he phrased it to glorify the deeds of Russia. In the same vein, he noted that the use of Russian currency in its trade has increased but fails to mention the cause is the freeze on the use of foreign currency–specifically the dollar–by Russia. Putin claimed that despite the sanctions, Russia had leapfrogged multiple nations to become the fifth-largest economy in the world, overtaking Germany.
In reality, the World Bank generously ranks Russia eighth on the list for national GDP; others rank it as low as fourteenth. Just last week, the Russian central bank instituted an emergency rate hike after the ruble collapsed, and the nation is facing a loss of talent as young men flee the country to avoid be conscripted into the war.