374. The Richest

Russia has more natural resources than any other country on Earth. The estimated total value of Russia's natural resources is seventy-five trillion dollars. The United States, in second place, has forty-five trillion dollars in natural resources. The difference is thirty trillion dollars. Russia has this in the ground.

Natural resources include oil, natural gas, timber, coal, minerals, and fresh water. Russia has large quantities of all of these. It also has a military, which it used in 2022 to begin a war with Ukraine, which resulted in sanctions from most of the developed world. The sanctions made portions of the seventy-five trillion dollars more difficult to sell to the people who previously bought them. Russia has continued selling to countries that did not impose sanctions, including India and China, which together represent approximately two and a half billion people with ongoing requirements for oil and natural gas.

The natural resources remain in the ground. The ground is in Russia. The sanctions are on Russia. The natural resources continue to be extracted. These facts are all simultaneously true.

Countries that imposed sanctions expected the sanctions to change Russia's behavior. Russia's behavior has included continuing the war for over four years, selling its natural resources to two of the most populous countries on Earth, and maintaining an economy that has not collapsed in the way that was anticipated when the sanctions were designed. The design process for the sanctions involved assumptions. Some of the assumptions were about Russia. Russia did not consult on the assumptions.

At seventy-five trillion dollars in natural resources, Russia is the wealthiest country on Earth by this measure. It is also the country whose foreign reserves were frozen, whose assets were seized, and whose athletes are banned from many international competitions. It is unclear whether the natural resources know this. They are underground. They are not watching the competitions. They are simply there, available, valued at seventy-five trillion dollars, waiting for whoever is buying this month.