The Plünnecke-Ruzsa inequality says that if are finite nonempty subsets of an abelian group and
then for all nonnegative integers ,
Choose a nonempty minimizing
then . We first prove the Petridis minimal-growth lemma
for every finite , by induction on . Remove , write , and let
The new points contributed to by are exactly . Moreover, , so
The induction hypothesis, the identity , and minimality, which gives , yield
Iteration with gives
Finally, the Ruzsa triangle inequality gives
as required.