The Russian economy is heading toward disaster

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Dear oh dear – things really aren’t looking good for the Russian bear at all, nor for all those that do business with it. “Poor structural policies, Western financial sanctions, and the oil price collapse. Each is producing a negative effect which reinforce each other to make the situation disproportionately worse,” combining to send the ruble plummeting to depths it has not seen for a while and wiping – in dollar terms – some 40% of the country’s GDP. And to make it worse, the Russian government doesn’t seem to realise what’s happening: “Russia’s national security council contains no economic official, and neither does Putin’s private circle. The secret police have taken over, and they are not likely to believe in any financial crisis until it is too late. It is already late.”