They’ve managed to survive Western sanctions which is incredible, their economy is primarily backed by oil, timber, and industrial output that BRICS affiliated countries are still buying.

Allegedly around 6-8% of their GDP is used for defence spending but this is from Western sources so there is of course a bias there

Apparently they're currently spending 6.3% of GDP on defense this year. In comparison, the US spent 9.4% during the height of the Vietnam war, the CIA estimates the USSR spent around 10-15% through the late 70s and 80s, and the Nazis spent 25% in 1939 and 75% in 1944.

I haven't really done a rigorous check on these numbers, and all of them are from western sources so take them with as much salt as you'd like, but it's pretty clear Russia is still far from a true war economy and have significant room to ramp up further if they decide they need to. Also, they have a large trade surplus with both China and India, so they have a consistent source of revenue.

According to every Russian I talk to: they manage to do this magic thing where they increase or decrease wages based on currency value. Everyone is aware of the corruption with the financial situation, some people understand where it came from. Sounds like more evil socialism that America needs to liberate all the oil from to me.

fine