The news that Russia is set to settle up all old Soviet debts by year-end highlights – we think not unintentionally – one of the glaring differences between how Moscow and Washington operate.
Moscow can’t afford to print rubles like there’s no tomorrow, so it lives in a reality-based world where pragmatism and agreement-by-consensus guides its domestic and foreign policies.
In contrast, Washington relies on confidence in and demand for the dollar, “allowing” it to print as much money as it needs to spend on fun projects such as “rebuilding” Afghanistan, which currently costs $13 million/day, even though the war “ended” three years ago.
So it’s not particularly surprising that Russia currently has the lowest national debt in Europe.
As for Russia, its debt-to-GDP ratio accounts to 18.3 percent in 2015. And it’s expected to continue to go down. In absolute terms, Russia’s government debt is roughly $147 billion.
This post was published at Russia Insider
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