Russia and Ukraine: Indicators Before the War

Almost two years ago today, Russia launched a major military attack on Ukraine and seized part of its territory. Fighting continues to this day in one of the most intense wars the world has seen in decades. This war has had significant political and economic consequences for both countries. But before this war, what were the political and economic indicators in both Ukraine and Russia? And what are the differences between them as countries connected by 1576 km of land borders, while their policies are completely contradictory, leading to a full-scale war?

The World Bank annually publishes a large number of indicators that assess the position of countries around the world on various issues, monitoring the development of these countries on various fronts - political and economic. These indicators also include other aspects such as governance, public participation in politics, market dynamics, and extend to justice, health, education, and other indicators of public life.

Based on the most important of these indicators, QueryTab presents a series of comparisons regarding politics and economics in Russia and Ukraine in the years before the war.

Governance and politics

The Political Stability and Absence of Violence Index, which the World Bank monitors annually in most countries of the world, indicates the presence of violence with its political aspect, i.e. based on political reasons, and the ability of this violence to affect political stability in the country targeted by the index. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution, i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism: Russia – Ukraine

Ukraine has surpassed Russia in political stability and absence of violence since before the 2014 Crimean Crisis. That year, the Crimean Crisis began, paving the way for Russia's direct intervention in Ukraine. From that date, the Ukrainian index began to decline, and as the political and military clash developed, the decline continued.

On the other hand, the difference between Russia and Ukraine is more pronounced in the area most closely related to internal governance and methods of public participation in state policy. This is shown by the World Bank's indicator of voice and accountability, which ranks countries around the world on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is the lowest value and indicates a complete lack of electoral participation and accountability.

Voice and Accountability: Russia-Ukraine

The role of law index is linked to previous indicators and is reflected in other political and economic indicators. The index covers all aspects of life - economic, political and social - and is an indicator of public confidence in the legal text and its application. It ranges from simple contracts about property or the organization of relations between individuals to major courts, internal security, and so on. The two indices are relatively similar in Russia and Ukraine, with the main difference before the war being that the Ukrainian index was trending upward and the Russian index was trending downward.

The role of law: Russia-Ukraine

Control Of Corruption

This indicator is at the forefront of indicators that monitor the integrity of governing systems, meaning the separation of powers from each other. In addition to the ability to limit the ability of those in power to control what is outside their authority, or their ability to exploit their power for their own personal goals. This index is one of the most important indicators used annually by the media to monitor international efforts to protect individuals.

Both countries are in the bottom third of the world's anti-corruption countries.

the control of corruption Index is also linked to an indicator that is highly effective in expressing the degree of independence of public services from political pressure from influential individuals in the state, the Government Effectiveness Index, on which Russia and Ukraine also converged in the decade before the war.

Government Effectiveness: Russia-Ukraine

Economic quality indicators

Numerous indicators and figures related to markets and economic performance, as well as the regulation of business, can be used to assess the quality of a country's economy. From the ease of investment and the quality of the investment environment to the ability to import and export at costs proportional to taxes and the quality of regulation of domestic and foreign trade.

Ukraine has surpassed Russia in regulating the quality of import and export procedures, which can be monitored through indicators such as Score-Cost to Export and Score-Cost to Import, which determine the quality of regulatory performance for exports and imports.

Score-Cost to Export: Russia-Ukraine

Score-Cost to Import: Russia-Ukraine

In the same context, The Regulatory Quality Index is at the forefront of indicators that monitor governance in general, focusing on the extent to which governments are able to provide business systems, laws, and environments conducive to private sector growth. Russia and Ukraine's lines on this index during the ten years before the war were almost equally opposite, meaning that Russia moved from an average to a poor ranking, while in Ukraine it was the opposite, as the line was upward towards an average ranking.

The Regulatory Quality Index: Russia-Ukraine

What Russia has done economically in the years before the war compared to Ukraine in terms of trade and investment is that its profit tax has remained low compared to Ukraine, and it has also achieved higher scores in the index of best regulatory practices for business facilitation, which is an index aimed at monitoring legal and official procedures and other regulatory requirements. Especially for investment and business creation.

Profit tax (% of profit): Russia-Ukraine

Ease of doing business score: Russia-Ukraine