Russia is spending so much invading Ukraine that it's a 'high-income' country now

Russia’s outsized military spending continues to blunt the impact of economic sanctions during its war in Ukraine. The World Bank said that it was upgrading the country’s economic standing to its top-tier “high-income” category from its earlier “upper-middle-income” status, because its gross national income (GNI) per capita increased by 11.2% in the last year.

“Economic activity in Russia was influenced by a large increase in military related activity in 2023, while growth was also boosted by a rebound in trade (+6.8%), the financial sector (+8.7%), and construction (+6.6%),” the organization said. “These factors led to increases in both real (3.6%) and nominal (10.9%) GDP.”