On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra discussed the news that Russia's economy, once thought to be teetering on the brink due to sanctions and warfare, has overtaken Germany's to become the largest in Europe.

"How could it be, though, given the sanctions against Russia and how close Russia was to toppling over, and how this war was burning up all their money?" Ezra asked.

After explaining the measurement of the purchasing power parity (PPP) metric, Ezra showed how metrics from the World Bank reveal China leading economically, followed by the U.S., India, Japan, and now Russia, ahead of Germany. Worth noting is that PPP adjusts for factors like tax rates and cost of living, providing a more accurate comparison of wealth across countries.

It's harder to answer the question of how this happened, but there are a few factors at play, despite how we may think the Russian economy is being severely crippled by economic sanctions. Russia still has natural resources that people still want, like oil, natural gas and minerals.

"The Liberals in Canada lied to us, saying no one will buy our oil and gas. If we don't impose environmental policies like carbon taxes, we need social licenses. That's nonsense," Ezra said. "OPEC and Russia dominate world energy markets, and they couldn't be more abusive to both the environment and the people too — no one cares."

This is only an excerpt of yesterday's episode of The Ezra Levant Show. To watch the full episode, become a subscriber to RebelNews+.