Originally Posted by
A_Van
1. If it's all about trade turnover with Iran measured in some USD 10 billion, then it does not matter whether the economy of the "other side" is 2 or 20 trillion. It is anyway big enough.
2. Regarding ranking of economies, measuring them in dollars, sterlings, etc. is a wrong approach. PPP matters (purchasing power parity). And in this list
https://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?t=100&v=65 China is number 1 and Russia is number 6, way ahead of Italy and Canada.
However, coming back to the main topic: as correctly mentioned above by Lonewolf, Russia seems to have little or no influence on Iran with regard to presence of Iranian forces in Syria. Just read a detailed analysis in some Russian media this morning where it was written that some "under carpet" talks between Russia and Iran about withdrawing Iranian forces yielded no result. Analysts assumed that these talks were undertaken in the frame of US-Russia negotiation on Syria.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/...omies-in-2018/
Russia isn’t a replacement as a trade partner for the US unless the volume of trade isn’t much. The gent that opined about alternatives wasn’t specific to Iran, nor was my reply.