Is Ukraine to Russia similar to what Hong Kong was to China?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I keep hearing that Ukraine had been doing fairly well before the recent invasion. I have no idea what “fairly well” means, especially when you compare it to its overbearing next-door neighbor.

I started thinking about Hong Kong and mainland China. Since Hong Kong was once British it was a bastion of commerce. In comparison to most of China, Hong Kong was a financial powerhouse. I’ve been to both Hong Kong and Beijing and the difference between them in terms of obvious wealth is undeniable.

Is that also one of the differences between Ukraine and Russia? Not to say that Ukraine is in any way as ostentatious as HK. Is the standard of living/average wage much higher in Ukraine compared to Russia? Is that any part of why Putin may want a piece and/or all of Ukraine?

2

Based on a quick look at data in the CIA world factbook, I’d say no.

Russia Real GDP per capita

$26,500 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2020 est.)
$27,200 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2019 est.)
$26,700 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2018 est.)

Ukraine Real GDP per capita

$12,400 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2020 est.)
$12,800 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2019 est.)
$12,300 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2018 est.)

3

My guess would be that if there are economic components to Putin’s calculations it’s the oil and gas fields concentrated in regions closest to Russia, and the most pro-Russian population. Obviously not sufficiently pro-Russian to make the “aid separatist movements” approach Putin has been using so far a great success, and the invasion has probably not increased overall pro-Russian sentiments.

4

Thanks for looking that up. That surprises me for some reason, but facts don’t lie. Russians are far better off than your average Ukrainian.

5

Pundits have said that Putin was likely misled by state intelligence into thinking lots of Ukrainians would welcome Russia’s advances, but that’s clearly not the case for most of the country, except for the eastern border regions. I thought Ukraine’s relationship with the West gave them a relative economic advantage over Russia, but that’s clearly not the case if Ukrainians are significantly poorer than your typical Russian is.

6

There are numerous reports, unconfirmed but consistent, from state intelligence sources that they were specifically ordered to provide those cheerful and optimistic analyses by their political leadership. They knew such an assessment was false, but they also knew that when you get an order, you comply. If these reports are accurate, the analysts never expected these lies would be the basis for a full scale invasion.

Edit to add: this isn’t really on topic for the thread, so if there’s followup we should go to the main Ukraine discussion.

7

I didn’t mean to wander off-topic. Now I don’t think Ukraine is anything like Hong Kong. That was a false assumption on my part.