Where do you rank Russia as a world power?

[Paxi]

Humour me! I've a lot of family and friends that will swear down that Russia is unbeatable.

Quite frankly, I find it mildly amusing that middle aged men in provincial Russia are so energised and so 'mobilised' to feck somebody up!

I personally would say that we're the toughest motherfeckers to walk this earth ------- We're not though.. I mean sometimes...

 

[Tarrou]

7th

 

[hobbers]

Bottom 50.

 

[Salt Bailly]

Joint 23rd with Chad.

 

[simonhch]

I guess peasants and gangsters are usually pretty hard, so probably quite highly.

 

[TheReligion]

Somewhere just below @bazalini

 

[Sky1981]

1v1? Only the US is a sure win. Even that comes with a price.

So I'd say if push comes to the last men you're quire a super power

 

[Carolina Red]

 

[Invictus]

Please don't come after me, I'm a noob and the rankings are mostly arbitrary (and not always relating to conventional hard power)...

• Tier 0 (only hyper power for the near future): United States of America. Quite simply a cut above the rest — logistics that have been honed over time, UNSC fixture, economically and politically dominant, in possession of incredible natural and human resources, unparalleled military might and projection capabilities to impose its will in most parts of the world, huge geopolitical advantage, unmatched soft power.
• Tier 1 (super power, tending upwards): People's Republic of China. Even though it's being anointed as a genuine hyper power, it's decidedly below Tier 0 right now — and has a lot of catching up to do. Burgeoning economic and scientific influence but more limited political influence and soft power in relative terms, vastly improved infrastructure but still a lot of poverty within the populace, UNSC fixture and militarily powerful but with lesser projection capabilities, etc cetera. Probably needs more meaningful alliances/interests and another half-century to mature and truly come into its own.
• Tier 2 (roughly comparable great powers): United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Deutschland, Japan, French Republic, essentially most of the major players of World War II. Hard to portray and rank their powers precisely right now, as they move around a bit while remaining within striking distance of each other in the contemporary period by a lot subjective measures. United Kingdom is on the UNSC and has a massive sphere of influence with seemingly everlasting fundamental strengths even though its might has obviously dwindled, Russia is in possession of humongous natural resources and is a significant military/political player on the global stage but there are a lot of underlying economic and demographic frailties on the domestic front, Japan is an economic giant and very significant in the East Asian sphere but boasts relatively lesser global projection capabilities, Germany is economically robust and a leader of the mega-powerful EU bloc but lacks individual global projection unless it decides to become more proactive, and so forth.
• Tier 3 (marginal power, progressing at snail's pace): Republic of India. On the upswing but a routine underachiever with minimal global political influence, quality rather than distilled quality by several measures — like an inverse form of Israel, needs political stability and radical modernization in every segment, militarily capable and becoming economically significant but with unrefined technological and human resources, rampant poverty, unending social issues and vast disparities within the populace, et cetera.
• Tier 3½ (fringe powers, some are potential great powers): you could make a case for any of Federative Republic of Brazil, Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Italian Republic, Republic of Korea right now — a few, like Australia, have an increasingly influential future ahead of them because of vast untapped resources, fundamental strength and underlying alignments (like CANZUK), whereas the likes of Italy will lose more ground over the coming decades and Saudi Arabia's standing is inherently volatile because of external dependencies.

Interestingly, Chinese academics maintain an annual ‟Comprehensive National Power index“, make of it what you will...

 

[Tiber]

They punch far above their economic and political weight

 

[MoskvaRed]

Military power - no.3 after US and China (the latter does not have all Russia’s capabilities but has 10 times the population)
Economic power - middling. Still depends on the price of oil
Soft power - atrociously bad

So still top tier but with a fair amount of bluff involved.

 

[Dante]

They could nuke the whole world many times over. On that score, they're joint top with the United States.

In conventional warfare, they're third behind the US and China.

 

[Eendracht maakt macht]

On influence in global policies 4th behind US, China and the European Union.

 

[Eendracht maakt macht]

Please don't come after me, I'm a noob and the rankings are mostly arbitrary (and not always relating to conventional hard power)...

• Tier 0 (only hyper power for the near future): United States of America. Quite simply a cut above the rest — logistics that have been honed over time, UNSC fixture, economically and politically dominant, in possession of incredible natural and human resources, unparalleled military might and projection capabilities to impose its will in most parts of the world, huge geopolitical advantage, unmatched soft power.
• Tier 1 (super power, tending upwards): People's Republic of China. Even though it's being anointed as a genuine hyper power, it's decidedly below Tier 0 right now — and has a lot of catching up to do. Burgeoning economic and scientific influence but more limited political influence and soft power in relative terms, vastly improved infrastructure but still a lot of poverty within the populace, UNSC fixture and militarily powerful but with lesser projection capabilities, etc cetera. Probably needs more meaningful alliances/interests and another half-century to mature and truly come into its own.
• Tier 2 (roughly comparable great powers): United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Deutschland, Japan, French Republic, essentially most of the major players of World War II. Hard to portray and rank their powers precisely right now, as they move around a bit while remaining within striking distance of each other in the contemporary period by a lot subjective measures. United Kingdom is on the UNSC and has a massive sphere of influence with seemingly everlasting fundamental strengths even though its might has obviously dwindled, Russia is in possession of humongous natural resources and is a significant military/political player on the global stage but there are a lot of underlying economic and demographic frailties on the domestic front, Japan is an economic giant and very significant in the East Asian sphere but boasts relatively lesser global projection capabilities, Germany is economically robust and a leader of the mega-powerful EU bloc but lacks individual global projection unless it decides to become more proactive, and so forth.
• Tier 3 (marginal power, progressing at snail's pace): Republic of India. On the upswing but a routine underachiever with minimal global political influence, quality rather than distilled quality by several measures — like an inverse form of Israel, needs political stability and radical modernization in every segment, militarily capable and becoming economically significant but with unrefined technological and human resources, rampant poverty, unending social issues and vast disparities within the populace, et cetera.
• Tier 3½ (fringe powers, some are potential great powers): you could make a case for any of Federative Republic of Brazil, Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Italian Republic, Republic of Korea right now — a few, like Australia, have an increasingly influential future ahead of them because of vast untapped resources, fundamental strength and underlying alignments (like CANZUK), whereas the likes of Italy will lose more ground over the coming decades and Saudi Arabia's standing is inherently volatile because of external dependencies.

Interestingly, Chinese academics maintain an annual ‟Comprehensive National Power index“, make of it what you will...

The cultural list seems weird. What’s the story behind that? Ancient Italy and Greece for instance?

 

[calodo2003]

Isn’t there a staunch Russian apologist on here? What’s their take?

 

[VorZakone]

They'll be up there for a while with their huge military and 100+ million population.

But I expect trends to go against them. Their economy is not good, and isn't their population shrinking?

Many rank them as 3rd behind US and China but I wouldn't be surprised if India overtakes them in the near future.

 

[Pexbo]

Isn’t there a staunch Russian apologist on here? What’s their take?

@Eboue

 

[harms]

• Tier 2 (roughly comparable great powers): United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Deutschland, Japan, French Republic, essentially most of the major players of World War II. Hard to portray and rank their powers precisely right now, as they move around a bit while remaining within striking distance of each other in the contemporary period by a lot subjective measures. United Kingdom is on the UNSC and has a massive sphere of influence with seemingly everlasting fundamental strengths even though its might has obviously dwindled, Russia is in possession of humongous natural resources and is a significant military/political player on the global stage but there are a lot of underlying economic and demographic frailties on the domestic front, Japan is an economic giant and very significant in the East Asian sphere but boasts relatively lesser global projection capabilities, Germany is economically robust and a leader of the mega-powerful EU bloc but lacks individual global projection unless it decides to become more proactive, and so forth.

And France has baguettes? Seriously though, it does look a bit out of place in that tier for me, although you can probably argue that they still have a significant influence on the states that they've previously "colonised".

 

[oates]

As a Rogue State it has to be in the Top 4 alongside the USA, China and the UK.

 

[Kasper]

Overrated, wouldn`t be able to do it on a windy rainy night in Stoke.

 

[harms]

Seriously though, I think that Russias top position at the moment is mostly due to inertia (and how well Putin uses it to be fair to him). Our military, nukes aside, is in a horrendous state — it's enormous in terms of the size (about 1 mil of military personnel), but about 300 thousands of those are mandatory drafted youngsters who don't even learn how to shoot in their one year in the army, spending most of the time painting roads and making snow sculptures. Most of the operations on foreign grounds, like Syria, are made not by the regular army, but by private contractors (like PMC Wagner)...

And today you need to invest in new technologies instead of trying to solve the issue by throwing cannon fodder at it. I wouldn't say that what the Russian army did/does in Syria & Ukraine was significantly impressive.

In terms of economy, we've also missed out on a golden opportunity that came along in the 00's — to properly invest the money from hyperinflated oil and natural gas prices back into our economy...

Anyway: Russian aggressive foreign politics are making it look like a bigger force than it actually is. US and China are completely out of the reach and I'd argue that Germany is as well. The rest is debatable depending on what exactly do you consider to be country's key attributes, but I'd say that the 5th place in the world order would be a very generous assessment, more realistically we're somewhere in the bottom of top-10.

 

[Invictus]

The cultural list seems weird. What’s the story behind that? Ancient Italy and Greece for instance?

No idea, to be honest. That segment is definitely weird and I couldn't find a coherent basis for their methodology; if the emphasis was on ancient culture, then surely Egypt and Iraq/Iraq (among others) would be worthy of a fairly high ranking — and China itself was a prominent cultural node for several centuries (including the Tang, Han and Qing dynasties), yet it's nowhere to be found in the Top 10 — while in a more modern sense, England (via the British Empire) and the United States (specifically from the 20th century and on wards) would be worthy of the highest consideration.

 

[Eendracht maakt macht]

No idea, to be honest. That segment is definitely weird and I couldn't find a coherent basis for their methodology; if the emphasis was on ancient culture, then surely Egypt and Iraq/Iraq (among others) would be worthy of a fairly high ranking — and China itself was a significant cultural node for several centuries (including the Qing dynasty), yet it's nowhere to be found in the Top 10 — while in a more modern sense, England (via the British Empire) and the United States (specifically from the 20th century and on wards) would be worthy of the highest consideration.

All very true. I couldn’t find more information either.

 

[Moby]

Funny how people feel like mentioning India in a list of world powers. Wasn't long ago when China decided to install a bunch of military posts on our territory, flat out occupying Indian land and all our corrupt govt could do was silently accept it and retreat with their tails between their legs, happily losing more and more territory as we speak.

The only 'power' our govt can exert is while oppressing minorities inside the country, they're fecking jackshit on the international stage.

 

[AkaAkuma]

No idea, to be honest. That segment is definitely weird and I couldn't find a coherent basis for their methodology; if the emphasis was on ancient culture, then surely Egypt and Iraq/Iraq (among others) would be worthy of a fairly high ranking — and China itself was a prominent cultural node for several centuries (including the Tang, Han and Qing dynasties), yet it's nowhere to be found in the Top 10 — while in a more modern sense, England (via the British Empire) and the United States (specifically from the 20th century and on wards) would be worthy of the highest consideration.

I'd imagine it's cultural export, but even then why is greece so high. Also I'd expect s.korea to be higher in that regard.

A lot of Japanese would be surprised how high they are on each list, but to rank so low on culture is a kick to the gut.

 

[elmo]

The cultural list seems weird. What’s the story behind that? Ancient Italy and Greece for instance?

It's their internal rank of which tourism spot they want to go to.

 

[Buster15]

Military power - no.3 after US and China (the latter does not have all Russia’s capabilities but has 10 times the population)
Economic power - middling. Still depends on the price of oil
Soft power - atrociously bad

So still top tier but with a fair amount of bluff involved.

Yes I agree.
Russia is still a very formidable Super Power. They are still spending vast sums of money on a wide array of both conventional as well as nuclear weapons.
And it is very important to remember that Putin is highly popular in Russia and therefore, can pretty much do as he sees fit.
Definitely no lower than number 3 and in all probability number 2, just ahead of China.

 

[harms]

And it is very important to remember that Putin is highly popular in Russia and therefore, can pretty much do as he sees fit.

While the second part of that sentence is certainly true, I wouldn't be too sure about the first one. He has built a system that can withstand a very significant amount of pressure, but his rating has been taking a huge hit lately & the increase in both protest activity and politically motivated arrests tells you that the situation is far from perfect for him.

 

[VorZakone]

Funny how people feel like mentioning India in a list of world powers. Wasn't long ago when China decided to install a bunch of military posts on our territory, flat out occupying Indian land and all our corrupt govt could do was silently accept it and retreat with their tails between their legs, happily losing more and more territory as we speak.

The only 'power' our govt can exert is while oppressing minorities inside the country, they're fecking jackshit on the international stage.

Did India really do this badly? The impression I got was that India stood its ground well in recent border skirmishes.

 

[Kopral Jono]

Please don't come after me, I'm a noob and the rankings are mostly arbitrary (and not always relating to conventional hard power)...

• Tier 0 (only hyper power for the near future): United States of America. Quite simply a cut above the rest — logistics that have been honed over time, UNSC fixture, economically and politically dominant, in possession of incredible natural and human resources, unparalleled military might and projection capabilities to impose its will in most parts of the world, huge geopolitical advantage, unmatched soft power.
• Tier 1 (super power, tending upwards): People's Republic of China. Even though it's being anointed as a genuine hyper power, it's decidedly below Tier 0 right now — and has a lot of catching up to do. Burgeoning economic and scientific influence but more limited political influence and soft power in relative terms, vastly improved infrastructure but still a lot of poverty within the populace, UNSC fixture and militarily powerful but with lesser projection capabilities, etc cetera. Probably needs more meaningful alliances/interests and another half-century to mature and truly come into its own.
• Tier 2 (roughly comparable great powers): United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Deutschland, Japan, French Republic, essentially most of the major players of World War II. Hard to portray and rank their powers precisely right now, as they move around a bit while remaining within striking distance of each other in the contemporary period by a lot subjective measures. United Kingdom is on the UNSC and has a massive sphere of influence with seemingly everlasting fundamental strengths even though its might has obviously dwindled, Russia is in possession of humongous natural resources and is a significant military/political player on the global stage but there are a lot of underlying economic and demographic frailties on the domestic front, Japan is an economic giant and very significant in the East Asian sphere but boasts relatively lesser global projection capabilities, Germany is economically robust and a leader of the mega-powerful EU bloc but lacks individual global projection unless it decides to become more proactive, and so forth.
• Tier 3 (marginal power, progressing at snail's pace): Republic of India. On the upswing but a routine underachiever with minimal global political influence, quality rather than distilled quality by several measures — like an inverse form of Israel, needs political stability and radical modernization in every segment, militarily capable and becoming economically significant but with unrefined technological and human resources, rampant poverty, unending social issues and vast disparities within the populace, et cetera.
• Tier 3½ (fringe powers, some are potential great powers): you could make a case for any of Federative Republic of Brazil, Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Italian Republic, Republic of Korea right now — a few, like Australia, have an increasingly influential future ahead of them because of vast untapped resources, fundamental strength and underlying alignments (like CANZUK), whereas the likes of Italy will lose more ground over the coming decades and Saudi Arabia's standing is inherently volatile because of external dependencies.

Interestingly, Chinese academics maintain an annual ‟Comprehensive National Power index“, make of it what you will...

South Korea's soft power is recognised very strongly in the East/Southeast Asian sphere and is on the rise the world over. Along with its reputation in the manufacturing sector, based on your list I'd say they have a claim on belonging to tier 3 or even somewhere between 2 and 3.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Did India really do this badly? The impression I got was that India stood its ground well in recent border skirmishes.

The soldiers certainly stood their ground, if reports of dozens dying in close quarters combat were true. But China is now building up infrastructure in the area.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Reminds me of that Varys quote on GoT

’power is like a shadow on the wall, it resides where men believe it resides’

Putin has mastered the art of projecting an illusion of Russia as a superpower.

 

[golden_blunder]

They’re fine as long as the oil remains a commodity that the world wants

 

[Hectic]

The total global population of brown bears is estimated to be above 200,000, Russia has the largest number of brown bears, believed to be over 100,000.

I believe that answers your question.

 

[Massive Spanner]

I believe that answers your question.

 

[Raoul]

Please don't come after me, I'm a noob and the rankings are mostly arbitrary (and not always relating to conventional hard power)...

• Tier 0 (only hyper power for the near future): United States of America. Quite simply a cut above the rest — logistics that have been honed over time, UNSC fixture, economically and politically dominant, in possession of incredible natural and human resources, unparalleled military might and projection capabilities to impose its will in most parts of the world, huge geopolitical advantage, unmatched soft power.
• Tier 1 (super power, tending upwards): People's Republic of China. Even though it's being anointed as a genuine hyper power, it's decidedly below Tier 0 right now — and has a lot of catching up to do. Burgeoning economic and scientific influence but more limited political influence and soft power in relative terms, vastly improved infrastructure but still a lot of poverty within the populace, UNSC fixture and militarily powerful but with lesser projection capabilities, etc cetera. Probably needs more meaningful alliances/interests and another half-century to mature and truly come into its own.
• Tier 2 (roughly comparable great powers): United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Deutschland, Japan, French Republic, essentially most of the major players of World War II. Hard to portray and rank their powers precisely right now, as they move around a bit while remaining within striking distance of each other in the contemporary period by a lot subjective measures. United Kingdom is on the UNSC and has a massive sphere of influence with seemingly everlasting fundamental strengths even though its might has obviously dwindled, Russia is in possession of humongous natural resources and is a significant military/political player on the global stage but there are a lot of underlying economic and demographic frailties on the domestic front, Japan is an economic giant and very significant in the East Asian sphere but boasts relatively lesser global projection capabilities, Germany is economically robust and a leader of the mega-powerful EU bloc but lacks individual global projection unless it decides to become more proactive, and so forth.
• Tier 3 (marginal power, progressing at snail's pace): Republic of India. On the upswing but a routine underachiever with minimal global political influence, quality rather than distilled quality by several measures — like an inverse form of Israel, needs political stability and radical modernization in every segment, militarily capable and becoming economically significant but with unrefined technological and human resources, rampant poverty, unending social issues and vast disparities within the populace, et cetera.
• Tier 3½ (fringe powers, some are potential great powers): you could make a case for any of Federative Republic of Brazil, Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Italian Republic, Republic of Korea right now — a few, like Australia, have an increasingly influential future ahead of them because of vast untapped resources, fundamental strength and underlying alignments (like CANZUK), whereas the likes of Italy will lose more ground over the coming decades and Saudi Arabia's standing is inherently volatile because of external dependencies.

Interestingly, Chinese academics maintain an annual ‟Comprehensive National Power index“, make of it what you will...

Great post. Although I’d probably place China and the US as contemporaries in the Hyperpower category since China is pretty much on par in economics and technology, but still behind on military. Although the military bit is somewhat in flux because of the nature of data and AI, two areas China is doing very well in at the moment.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Great post. Although I’d probably place China and the US as contemporaries in the Hyperpower category since China is pretty much on par in economics and technology, but still behind on military.

Then they should still be behind, as hard power is a significant part of being a hyperpower - if that’s even still a thing. I thought we had retired that term, but the US would be the only one you could apply it to despite how much of a mess it is at the moment.

 

[The Firestarter]

Great post. Although I’d probably place China and the US as contemporaries in the Hyperpower category since China is pretty much on par in economics and technology, but still behind on military.

Certain tech yes, but some crucial sectors where the current state of art has been reached after many decades, such as gas turbine engines which can have both civil and mil impact, are still behind.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Humour me! I've a lot of family and friends that will swear down that Russia is unbeatable.

Quite frankly, I find it mildly amusing that middle aged men in provincial Russia are so energised and so 'mobilised' to feck somebody up!

I personally would say that we're the toughest motherfeckers to walk this earth ------- We're not though.. I mean sometimes...

How are we supposed to know who this we is?

 

[pierrethesnack]

And France has baguettes? Seriously though, it does look a bit out of place in that tier for me, although you can probably argue that they still have a significant influence on the states that they've previously "colonised".

It's hard to argue otherwise. Their influence in Africa and joint influence in Europe with Germany definitely puts them up there.