In GDP terms the EU has a 10 times larger economy, but in GDP adjusted for purchasing power it is only 4 times larger. In absolute terms EU military spending is higher then that of Russia, but it is about the same, when adjusting for purchasing power.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

I had to check that out, because I found that very hard to believe.
But it appears you are right:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.CD?locations=EU

26,431,141 million (international dollars) 2023

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)

5,816,000 GDP (millions of current international dollar) 2023

So EU is almost exactly 4.5 times bigger on PPP.

but it is about the same, when adjusting for purchasing power.

OK fair enough, but the point is that it needs to be at least the same for Ukraine. But maybe I wasn't clear on that part.

One of the reasons PPP is so much better per dollar in Russia, is that energy is cheap. But the entire energy sector is hard pressed currently, and is running at huge deficits.
In fact the Russian economy is so hard pressed from sop many sides now, like worker shortage, inflation, state deficits, insane interest rates, that makes investments near impossible.
So Russia is cooking the books in almost every way possible. So we can't trust new numbers and deficits, they claim to have growth, but evidence shows the opposite.

Another thing is PPP numbers don't work for imports, so the degree they rely on China, India, North Korea and Iran, the better PPP numbers aren't much help. In those cases it's the nominal number that counts.

Still it's a valid point. 👍 😀