As the most popular foreign leader in China, Putin is often joked by netizens? The emperor? Many people think that Putin saved Russia. Some people even decided that Russia would be worthless without Putin.
There is no denying that heroes have a great influence on a country. There have been many heroes in Russian history, such as Ivan the Great, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. It is precisely because of the foresight of these czars that Russia has established its status as a great power today. Now many people also regard Putin as a figure like Peter the Great, hoping that he can revive Russia.
Putin has been in power in Russia for 20 years. To be fair, today's Russia has not recovered its strength, at least not as strong as it was in the Soviet era. And if compared with other world powers, Russia is backward.
First of all, let me list Putin's achievements. Compared with Yeltsin, Putin's attack on domestic separatist forces is still very tough. He put down the Chechen and Ingushetia rebellions in Inner Mongolia-Xinjiang region, suppressed local and state power, established eight federal districts, strengthened centralization and consolidated Russia's territorial integrity.
In addition, Putin captured South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia in 2008, and incorporated Crimea into the territory in 20 14, further expanding the territory of Russia and establishing his national hero image. Judging from the above achievements, Russia seems to be stronger, but realistically speaking, winning a few third-rate weak countries is not enough to explain anything.
When Putin came to power in 2000, Russia's economy was depressed, and its main business was selling oil, natural gas and arms. Today, Russia's foreign trade is still these, and nothing has changed!
Fortunately, with the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, the international oil price began to rise sharply, from less than $30 at first to more than $0/00 per barrel, which brought huge foreign exchange income to Russia and the financial situation of the Russian government improved day by day.
In 20 13 years, Russia's total GDP reached a record $2.08 trillion. You know, in 2000, this figure was only $260 billion, and the Russian economy increased eightfold in less than fifteen years! This growth rate exceeds all neighboring countries, which is very shocking. With money, Putin began to engage in people's livelihood, develop weapons, and resume strategic bomber cruises, which is likely to revive the past.
However, Russia's economic growth is mainly brought by selling oil, and international oil prices are not in Russia's charge. After the annexation of Crimea by 20 14, the United States joined forces with Saudi Arabia to suppress oil prices, which led to a sharp drop in international oil prices and even fell below the $40 mark for a time, causing the Russian economy to fall into a painful recession again.
By 20 16, Russia's economy had been declining to $65,438 +0.28 trillion, which was $800 billion less than the peak period. This shows how much oil revenue affects Russia. It was not until 20 17 that the Russian economy improved, but it still could not be compared with 20 13.
Apart from oil and natural gas, the only product that Russia can get is weapons. However, due to the lack of economic vigilance, Russian military spending has been relatively tight, Russian military workers have been living on their laurels all the year round, and the quality of weapons has not kept pace with the times. Many big sellers of Russian weapons choose to buy American weapons or European weapons. For example, India, an old friend of Russia, has bought a large number of American weapons in recent years, which has caused Russia to lose many orders.
In addition, with China, South Korea, Turkey and other emerging military countries entering the international arms market, the market share of Russian weapons has been further compressed and eroded.
Today's Russian economy is still dominated by the sale of energy and weapons, with a single domestic economic structure and difficult economic transformation. On the other hand, other world powers are developing cutting-edge scientific and technological products on a large scale, and Russia is increasingly dependent on other countries.
Take military chips for example. Before 20 14, Russian military chips were mainly from Europe and America, but after 20 14, almost all Russian military chips were provided by China due to the comprehensive sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States. If nothing else, it's really far from the Soviet Union.
Nowadays, there are different opinions about Putin's ruling party. If you compare yourself with yourself 20 years ago, Russia is really strong, but if you compare other powerful countries, Russia is far behind.