Great Heros! Geh!

[Furunculus]

In other news, is russia about to suffer complete economic collapse?

http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/33100

[Sarmatian]

In other news, is russia about to suffer complete economic collapse?

http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/33100

Nah. Wishful thinking by some. Russia's economy is suffering from the effect of global recession, like everybody else, that's it... 2009 isn't going to be very enjoyable for any of us, but developing countries will feel its effects more than developed...

[Watchman]

...so which group does Russia count in...?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Second World.

Russia's economy is still shaky and so is its society, neither has deep or settled foundations and th ecenomic slide may topple both. If Putin makes the right decisions Russia will prosper, if not it will be in the same state it was two decades ago.

Of course, the failure of democracy in that country means that it will be difficult to replace Vlad I if he fails. On another note, I wish he would just proclaim himself Tsar, I'd have more respect for him then.

[Sarmatian]

...so which group does Russia count in...?

Developing.

Economic growth of developing countries is still largely influenced by western capital. So in case of Russia, crisis not only impacted the buying power of the western markets, it also limited the amount of western capital flowing to Russia through investments. Also, less foreign currencies enter Russia due to oil prices drop. Good thing for Russia is that natural gas has some lag before it catches up with the oil prices, so the price of gas will still be relatively high during the winter, but if this thing with Ukraine continues, Russia will lose a huge amount of money. Western European countries, the biggest consumers of Russian gas will use reserves for the winter and fill them up in the spring or summer when the price of gas significantly drops.

2009 is going to be really hard on Russia, it is questionable whether their economy will have any growth. In a normal situation they would have 7-10%. But, in the long run, Russian economic perspective is bright. Due to industralization of many large countries, like China and India, energy and raw materials will be in high demand for the foreseeable future. There will be ups and downs regardless, of course.