Firstly, Nigerian population is much larger than Russian (190 vs 146). And secondly, what's wrong with population of Nigeria? It's 60% of population of USA and will probably be equal in 30 years.
> And secondly, what's wrong with population of Nigeria?
I don't think it was a sleight on Nigeria. Just a poetic way to emphasize the weakness of the Russian economy by highlighting the disparity between its population and its GDP. And while the population of Nigeria is is larger it's in the right ballpark for the argument being made. They could have said Pakistan, Bangladesh or Indonesia. Although I suspect those nations have even larger populations but not by an order of magnitude.
Yeah, I didn't mean anything about questioning if it was a sleight etc, just talking about size of population. The comment was talking about Russia being substitution for USA in coupling with China, and that Russia has too low population. So it's actually about comparing size of population of USA and Russia, then Nigeria looked as an example of a country with small population compared to USA. Which is far from true.
I don't think it was a sleight on Nigeria. Just a poetic way to emphasize the weakness of the Russian economy by highlighting the disparity between its population and its GDP. And while the population of Nigeria is is larger it's in the right ballpark for the argument being made. They could have said Pakistan, Bangladesh or Indonesia. Although I suspect those nations have even larger populations but not by an order of magnitude.