[JPLeRouzic]

>> Russia has an economy the size of New York state.

According to Wikipedia it is 2.6 times more than New York state:

- New York's gross state product in 2018 was $1.7 trillion.

- Russia has a GDP of $4.519 trillion in 2020

>> In a country of over 140 million people, that is no one's definition of success.

It's half GDP per capita of USA, but USA has half of GDP per capita of Macau or Qatar. Ireland or Norway have a better GDP per capita than US. And if there was no wealth transfer between "rich" US states and "poor" US states, those would be much poorer, and would become comparable to Russia.

[IkmoIkmo]

You're taking PPP figures instead of nominal figures. That's not necessarily wrong but it should be mentioned and explained. Based on nominal figures both new york state and russia are around 1.6-1.7 trillion.

[seanmcdirmid]

PPP is incredibly misleading and is often useless as a comparison mechanism. The same car in the USA isn’t somehow cheaper in China (quite the opposite, Russia also), a lot of adjustments made in PPP are straight out differences in quality of life expectations.