Russia in World’s Top-Ten Economies Since Start of Century – Analysis

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last year that the country had successfully withstood “unprecedented” sanctions pressure by the West, which slapped a whole array of measures on Moscow shortly after the start of the special military operation.

The Russian economy has ranked tenth among the world's major economies in terms of growth in US dollars since the beginning of the 21st century, a Sputnik analysis of data from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has shown.

Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) has grown 7.7 times over during the past 23 years, increasing to more than $2 trillion from $260 billion at the end of last century, according to the analysis.

This comes after the Washington Post reported on Friday that the country has been successful in its efforts to build “a sustainable economy” amid the ongoing special military operation. The newspaper also mentioned the futility of Western sanctions, which it said "have failed to collapse Russia’s economy."

Russia’s Federal Service for State Statistics (Rosstat) has meanwhile released data showing that the national economy grew by 5.4% in the first quarter of 2024, which coincides with an assessment by the Ministry of Economic Development.

This followed a recent report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development indicating that Russia's economy grew by 3.6% in 2023, with the country's GDP expected to increase by 2.5% before the end of this year.

The US and its allies imposed a whole slew of crippling sanctions on various sectors of the Russian economy shortly after the beginning of Moscow’s special military operation.

Last year, Putin stressed that the economy was stable and that the country had overcome all the sanctions-related problems, moving on to "the next stage of development."

"In general, we can say that the restoration of the Russian economy has been completed. We withstood absolutely unprecedented external pressure, the sanctions onslaught of some ruling elites in the so-called Western bloc, some ruling elites in certain countries, which we call unfriendly," Putin said.