Russia has a developed military. There is no question or concern about it. But it does not necessarily mean that Russia has developed economy.
The Russian exports account for 30% of Russia’s gross domestic product where as 40% of its exports are energy. It simply construes that Russian economy is derived from the export of single commodity; energy. It simply depends on single commodity. This is the definition of developing economy.
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This was the main reason why Soviet Union was collapsed. Soviets tried hard to compensate a developed military with developing economy. This limited the social development or anything outside defense and energy. UK MI6 Director Richard Moore mentioned ““Russia is an objectively weakening power in economic and demographic terms”. He was right about his statement although should not be mentioned by someone in his position.
If Russia wants to breathe then it has to first build a modern economy and then deal with geopolitics including strengthening military capability (or better to say modernization of military equipment). However, Russian oligarchs and the way the politics are designed have no room for such adjustments.
President Putin is aware that Russia has to have robust economy if Russia intends following geopolitical imperatives. And Russia has no strong economy, yet. And Russian genuine problem is not United States or EU but its economic model. Unless it is changed, Russia will be in between developed and developing nation.
We; The Turks, are proud of our nation. We start believing that we can do great things, we can achieve great goals, we can even return to old good days. But in reality, we cannot do any of those unless we have developed nation economy. Turkey cannot compensate a military while its economy is not highly industrialized. Turkey cannot pursue geopolitical imperatives unless Turkey owes great debts to foreign powers including EU and US. Turkey cannot be a role model among Muslim community unless the laws are transparent and respected by all groups in its community. While it is the situation in Turkey, it will be a great delusion to believe all these happen unless economic model is rectified.
