The real size of Russia
The idea of a huge country shown by the Mercator projection gives a false idea of the size of Russia
Africa has an area of 30 million km2. Russia appears twice as large on the Mercator projection, but in real area it is half its size. A third of Africa is desert and therefore not habitable or exploitable, but it is worse in the case of Russia, covered in snow or forests on 60% of its territory.
World map according to the Mercator projection and real areas inside:
World map with the area of Russia adjusted to the size of arable or habitable land:
If we translate these images into numbers, it gives:
- Total area of Russia: 17,125,000 km2.
- Habitable or arable area: 6,850,000 km2.
- Area of the EU, the most of which is habitable or arable: 4,233,000 km2.
- To this will be added in the future the 603,628 km2 of Ukraine.
In conclusion, Russia, even in terms of area, is not the giant country that its inhabitants believe it to be. And if we compare GDP (gross domestic product, a measure of financial power), for the year 2022, its GDP of 2,270 trillion dollars is actually ridiculous compared to the 16,750 trillion dollars of the EU, and the 25,440 trillion dollars of the USA.