>Note that DESPITE the economic collapse in the fSU in
>the 1990s and DESPITE China's 20 years of economic
>boom, per capita incomes in the bulk of the fSU are
>STILL HIGHER than in China.
You may want to look at UNDP's Human Development Index and rank at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/
Russia's rank (57) can be compared with China (94).
If one wanted make facile comparisons, one could add Saudi Arabia (77), Turkmenistan (86) and Azerbaijan (91) to the list. :)
Ulhas