Russia no longer resurgent

I find the demise of Russia hugely amusing. Their poor embattled central bank has already spent about a third of their entire foreign reserves to prop up the ruble (under political directives from the Kremlin) only to see it fall by 33 percent since the end of summer. There is no end in sight. 

But remember? It must have been only half a year ago when that bizarre and pathetic little man, Vladimir "Time Man of the Year" Putin, so alike all the other petty little thieves and autocrats who have ruled that unfortunate country, bestrode the globe with his lazy judo-belt self-confidence. Shame, really, that the price of oil has gone through the cellar since and now no money is left to prop up that huge ego any more. 

What's even more entertaining is that they didn't even have the foresight to spend some of the oil windfall on upgrading their energy infrastructure and developing new fields - so Gazprom now actually has to go and buy some of its gas from Central Asia. I mean if you have decided that you are going to forget about all that new economy nonsense and invest in the talents of your people, and instead make money by selling stuff that you found in the ground, then you could at least make sure that that one thing works. Even the Gulf Arabs know this. 

But not Russia. They really must have thought the oil boom is going to last forever. Or perhaps there were a few who knew better. But since the KGB is running the place now, they must have thought it best not to make too much noise. Is any of this a surprise? Of course not, unless you still believe in that old lie about the good tsar.