Even with a smaller population in two decades, and an improved life expectancy, a future Russia could attain a real GNP of about a trillion U.S. dollars at the current rate. This would require an average growth in the GNP of about 2.5 percent per year. Russia's economy in 1999 was the world's thirteenth or fourteenth in terms of overall size, but health-based projections indicate that it might become as low as twentieth (World Development Report, 1998/1999). Both Thailand and Australia would have larger GNP in two decades than the world's twentieth largest economy, while it is possible that Argentina, South Africa, or Holland might vie for that spot with Russia. This would derogate Russia to the sidelines of global decision-making, after occupying the first ranks since World War II.