A superpower is a state that is a chief economic actor on the global stage, with the most dominant military power in its sphere of influence with a strong nuclear arsenal and has mulitple global institutions with vast influence over the world. Realists would argue that Russia isn't a dominant superpower because it has weak economic power on the global state. To be a superpower a state needs to have dominant economic influence over the world and especially in its sphere of influence. However, Russia's gross-domestic product was 1.5 trillion in 2017, which compared to smaller states such as the UK which have a gdp of over 2.3 trillion (2017), Russia's gdp doesn't seem to be in proportion to its large population of 140 millon. In terms of PPP the Russian economy is about the size of the German economy. In addition to this, the Russian economy was put under western sanctions earlier this year which has contributed to Russia's small growth of 2 percent a year, which is a little bit above that of France and just under that of Germany.
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