For reasons that are well known, Russia today is facing the strongest sanctions ever imposed in the Western world, and by now, Russia's overseas assets have been seized, including up to $300 billion in foreign exchange reserves.
The Western world even wants to completely decouple itself from Russia economically, not only can not sell all my products to you, but also your products cannot be sold to me, and the Western world must sit back and watch Russia become an economic island and fend for itself.
On the one hand, in addition to the Western world, there are billions of people in this world, and Russia has many trading partners around the world, while on the other hand, Russia's economy is like a fortress, it is actually difficult to be besieged.
Why? As an example I have given in the past, Russia's economy is a bit like a big Saudi Arabia, with an inexhaustible amount of energy, and even a lot of grain, both of which are hard currency in the international market. It is possible to ensure the use of their own country and to exchange for a large amount of foreign exchange and a large number of manufactured goods, so the economic sanctions imposed by the Western world on Russia will, on the surface, make Russia's economy decline, but it will not play a role in hurting the bones.
Especially after this sanction, many people suddenly found that Russia is not only an energy power but also a food country, to know that just a few decades ago, Russia was still a grain importer, how did it become a grain exporter now?
During the Soviet period, we know that the Soviet Union's military industry and heavy industry are very developed, because the whole of Russia is still lagging behind the Western countries in the economy, when the Soviet Union was just established, the leaders wanted to quickly turn this agricultural country into an industrial country, so Russia's investment in industry is very huge, which also makes Russia's light industry and agriculture very underdeveloped.
You should know that the Soviet Union at that time included today's Ukraine, the black land of Ukraine is comparable to the northeast of the mainland, with the title of the large granary of Europe, and the Soviet Union has more than 20 million square kilometers of land, only more than 300 million people, this population density is much smaller than many countries.
However, the Soviet Union still lacks grain every year, the Soviet Union still needs to import a large amount of grain every year, and even since the 1980s, why the Soviet Economy has become worse and worse, it is because in the international arena, the United States and Saudi Arabia have joined forces to lower oil prices, making the Soviet Union's oil exports unable to exchange as much foreign exchange as before. On the other hand, the Soviet Union's grain imports were still increasing, and the people had to be fed, so the reduction in foreign exchange earnings made the Soviet Union's food supply insufficient.
So that in the 1980s and 1990s, the shortage of supply was a major lifeline of the Soviet economy, and the most common thing for many Soviet people was to queue up, to buy a leva to queue, to buy a sausage to buy bacon to queue, to buy almost all the people's biological resources to queue.
Even after the reform and opening up of the mainland, a large number of backward masters have become rich, and what these backward masters are doing, they are selling a large number of light industrial small commodities from the mainland to Russia, because Russia's light industry is really too underdeveloped, which makes many backward masters earn a lot of money, so for a long time it has left an impression that the soviet Union is a country where heavy industry is very developed, the military industry is very developed, and the energy is very abundant, but it is really not good at grain.
The Soviets don't seem to be able to grow grain, and they are blind to such a vast land, but this is really the old yellow calendar, and Russia has long been transformed into a big food exporter. From the data point of view, today's Russia is the world's largest natural gas exporter, is the world's second largest oil exporter, this person knows, but at the same time Russia is also the world's second largest wheat exporter.
Even if After the Crimean crisis, Russia has encountered repeated sanctions from the Western world, and even for a period of time, international oil prices are very low, and the Russian central finance has been bitter for a long time that oil prices have remained at a low level of 40 US dollars a barrel, then the Russian central finance has been exhausted, and wages may not be paid, but Russia's agriculture has maintained positive growth.
In 2014, when the Russian economy was in a state of total recession, GDP fell by 3.7% due to Western economic sanctions, but Russia's agricultural exports increased by 16.5% year-on-year, and in that year, Russia's grain exports accounted for 7% of global exports, and wheat exports accounted for 12% of global exports.
By 2015, Russia's agricultural output had grown by 2.6 percent, meat production had reached nearly 10 million tons, and in 2016, Russia's grain production had reached its highest level in 38 years. Wheat production that year was 73 million tons, exports of 29 million tons, North Africa, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe many countries, a large number of purchases of Russian wheat, not only wheat, Russia's total sugar beet production more than the United States, Germany, France combined, accounting for the world's first.
Russia's meat production has also increased in recent years, and in the 1980s and 1990s, Russia imported a large amount of grain, and now the grain does not need to be imported at all, and has been changed to export. Now, as its own meat production has increased, Russia's meat imports from South America and Europe are also declining, which means that Russian agriculture is slowly changing from a burden to an economic pillar.
How can this be? This is indeed related to management, as we all know that the former Soviet Union era engaged in collective state-owned farms, to be honest, this economic method is not very advanced, the mainland as early as the beginning of reform and opening up, the first direction of reform is domestic agriculture.
Today, we still remember the agreement that the dozen or so families in Xiaogang Village were stamped with handprints, and the mainland's reform and opening up actually began in the countryside, that is, to change the original economic structure, so that ordinary peasants could own their own land, break the cauldron of rice and work more, and then the mainland agriculture was completely rejuvenated.
The agrarian reform in Russia was carried out too late to tell the truth, and the collective farms of the former Soviet Union era, where everyone ate a cauldron of rice, made agriculture very underdeveloped. After entering the 21st century, not only has Russia changed the original agricultural economic form, but also the state's investment in agriculture is very huge.
From 2005 to 2013, the Russian government's financial investment in agriculture increased by 230%, and in 2013 alone, Russia's subsidies to agriculture reached 5.77 billion US dollars, and then it has continued to grow year after year, especially in order to protect the growth of its own agriculture, like many countries, the Russian government has also given greater policy support.
In particular, after the Crimean crisis in 2014, as a countermeasure against Western economic sanctions, Putin signed an import ban banning or restricting imports from North America, Australia and the European Union, which reduced the number of Russian agricultural imports by one-third in 2015 and the amount of Russian food imports in 2016 by two-thirds.
So far, the number of domestic food in Russia has firmly occupied more than 90% of the domestic market share, which is what we sometimes say, can not kill you to make you stronger. After 2014, the Western world has taken a lot of economic sanctions against Russia, and russia has also taken countermeasures against you, and if you sanction me, I will not buy your things, but give Russian agriculture a broader space for growth.
Maybe the Russian people will live a hard life, imported food can not be bought, but with the passage of time, the country's food has grown strongly, which makes agriculture slowly become Russia's pillar industry, Russians suddenly found that not only selling oil can make money, selling grain can also make money.
In particular, this is very important for Russia's national security, the continent with thousands of years of history has such political wisdom, we know that at any time there is grain in hand, why to this day we still adhere to the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land and do not relax this policy, is because we must always provide enough food for 1.4 billion people.
In modern society, on the one hand, you have to have food and on the other hand, you also have to have energy, and it just so happens that russia is not short of both, so Russia is comfortable with the sanctions of today's Western world. You want the United States not to let Russia sell oil, it doesn't matter that I can sell it to other countries, and because Russia is no longer supplying, the international oil price has soared, and Russia can make more money.
Not only am I self-sufficient in energy, I can also exchange a lot of foreign exchange and manufactured goods, and on the other hand, today Russians do not even lack food, just imagine, if today's Russian economic structure is similar to the 80s of the last century, unlimited energy but insufficient food, every year must buy a large amount of grain from overseas, then today's Russia can be dangerous.
The United States cut off supply with you and do not let other countries sell grain to you, the Russian economy is in jeopardy, but now people are not worried, not only can they have enough grain to eat, but also can export a large number of exports, which makes like some people say, the Russian economy is a Russian fortress today.
No matter how the United States besieges from the outside, it is impossible to break, people's internal circulation inside is very good, there is no need to consider importing from overseas when there is oil and grain, but if the economy of the Western world lacks Russia's energy, will it become worse? And time is on the side of Russia, in the past we have talked to you, global warming is actually beneficial to Russia, Russia's vast territory, more than 17 million square kilometers, but in fact its center of gravity is in the European part.
A large part of Asia's land is no man's land, the temperature is too low, it is simply not suitable for human survival, but with global warming, the Arctic shipping lanes have been opened, a lot of perennial permafrost in Siberia has been turned into fertile land, the Russian government is now considering the development of these lands, if you are a Russian, you are willing to reclaim these desolate lands, the Russian government will give you a lot of land for free.
At the same time, Russia also very much hopes that foreign capital will come to these lands to develop, today to be honest in many places at the junction of China and Russia, there are a large number of Chinese farmers who have crossed the border to Russia to rent land to plant crops, such a vast land not only provides Russia with a very large strategic depth, but also provides a solid foundation for his future economic development.
Russians actually did not think about the problem of energy, according to the current trend may also be 30 years later, 50 years later, the whole world for fossil energy demand will be less and less, after all, we all drive electric vehicles, power generation we all want to use solar energy, hydro energy, wind energy, so what about Russia? On the one hand, people have proposed a concept, how much all oil and gas can sell, the more the better, to accumulate a sum of money for the future Russian finances.
On the other hand, it is necessary to consider other economic development directions, it is clear that agriculture is one of them, the development of agriculture Russia has unique conditions, there are too many lands, and with global warming, the value of these lands will gradually increase.
The sanctions imposed by the Western world eight years ago gave Russian agriculture a rare opportunity for development, and today the Western world has stepped up the pace of sanctions to economically wipe Russia off the global map. However, on the one hand, such means may not be able to play a nerve-wracking role for Russia, and on the other hand, is it possible to have a counterproductive effect, but on the contrary, it will usher in a greater climax of development in Russian agriculture?