This GDP argument is useless. Before war Russia had GDP comparable to Italy, it should collapse in a few days after sanctions, and we all know how it went!
You can look at median disposable household income, rent/real estate to income ratio and many other indicator which tell a similar story. GDP per capita is just a proxy.
> Before war Russia had GDP
Well.. Russia had 2.3 times higher population than Italy so it's not particularly surprising. Also it wasn't really that poor compared to most other EE countries (about on par with the Baltic states prior to 2014).
