Comment by briandw

Do you trust the Soviets GDP numbers? Even if you do, the Soviets were spending upwards of 40% of their GDP on the military, not exactly a quality of life enhancement. Even discounting that, the only states that I could find that might qualify are Moldova (about the same level) and Ukraine about 72%). Ukraine is pretty clearly the Russians are to blame there. Other post Soviet countries, like Turkmenistan are > 580% bigger real GDP. Uzbekistan, Armenia and Kazakhstan are around 3x bigger GDP. Belarus, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan are around 2x bigger GDP. Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Georgia are about 1.3x bigger GDP.