No lesser a power? The only way this possibly makes sense is if we restrict our investigation to economic power. And as I said above when you have to restrict t

No lesser a power? The only way this possibly makes sense is if we restrict our investigation to economic power. And as I said above when you have to restrict the assessment to one category you are no longer talking about major/great powers. That being said economic power is one component of being a "great/major power" and I have no problem saying Brazil is definitely neck and neck with Russia when it comes to economic indicators. When you consider military and diplomatic might it is no contest. The nice thing is we have two quick and easy litmus tests for diplomatic and military power: season tickets to the security council and nuclear weapons. Things do not get any better if you dig a little deeper. Russia easily doubles Brazilian military spending and has battle tested forces. Speaking of forces Russia has six times the number of active duty personnel. On the diplomatic front I am at a loss for anything that Brazil has been involved in that comes close to Russia's participation in talks with Iran and North Korea.