>>>>>>>So how could any indiv. Euro. country hope to compete with an empire the size of the US, with all her mineral riches?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>You're not familiar with a little country called Russia?
>>>>>
>>>>>That's not part of the EU and has for 50-odd years been considered an enemy. Besides, a good portion of it's in Asia, isn't it? And yes, there's another empire with huge mineral resources. Hell, Europe and N. America will be going to war against each other for Russia's oil in a few decades!
>>>>
>>>>Since when is the EU, Europe. :-)Even if you count only the portion of Russian that is in Europe, it is still the largest country.
>>>
>>>Since always, until Turkey gets in.
>>
>>But on both measures... either total country size or size that is in Europe, Russia still wins. I'll go toe-toe with you any day on geography Mr McDonnell.
>
>Evan
>
>I don't know what you're arguing here but:
>
>Russia isn't all in Europe.
>The portion that is in Europe - I wouldn't know if it's the largest country therein.
>If you mean the largest country in the world, then I thought Canada was (surprising as one tends to think of the vastness of Russia and China)


Russia is by far the largest. The gap between the size of Russia and any other country was even larger when the USSR was intact. Canada, the U.S., and China follow, more or less the same size. Then Brazil and Australia a bit behind. After that it's a big dropoff.

http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/world_statistics_by_area.htm