A Chinese Gas Station - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

A Chinese Gas Station - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

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Not sure what the deal on reader is, so Sully's just getting his own links this way.

I was fascinated by the idea of Russia being a cheap Chinese gas station. The comparisons reminded me of what I heard a few weeks ago when the so called "brick" nations held an official economic session. Russia was compared more to Saudi Arabia than the others, and it was unclear how their general economy was functioning (although the price of oil has been rising to compensate for their failings of late). They produce almost nothing for export but raw materials, and of that almost all in energy. By contrast, countries Brazil and India have grown up large technology sectors AND have a broader cross section of raw material AND have more or less internally sustainable agricultural sectors. Unless fossil fuel energy remains of high demand, Russia is going nowhere. It's still China that looks like the dominant power to contend with over the next century. Russia is fast becoming a backwards afterthought, much they were throughout most of their history.