If you calculate GDP in purchasing power parity, and this is very important, Russia is the leading power in Europe, ahead of Germany. This is not me saying this, this is the World Bank, this is the IMF. In France, you need big salaries in euros because everything is expensive there. For example, if you go to a gas station and buy a liter of fuel, you pay almost 2 euros for some products. Oil doesn’t cost 2 euros in Russia. The same product costs 50 rubles, or 50 euro cents. In other words, you need a much smaller salary to live comfortably. Electricity bills are divided by 4. That is, you pay differently for the same services or goods. This is called purchasing power parity. So Russia is in a much better position in terms of purchasing power parity than people in the West realize.
