But Russia has nukes and a sizable military. How can they afford to have such a large military, if their gdp is like Spain's? Russia population is around 144 million, Spain's around 46 million according to google, so about 3x the population, but 1/3 gdp per person. Are the poor so starved in russia that they can afford to have jet fighter development, nukes, air craft carriers, etc? I'd never thought hard about how Russia can afford to have such an apparently dangerous military while being relatively small and poor.