The crisis goes straight to Putin's Achilles' heel, raising the long-muttered question of whether it was keen policy or simply record-breaking oil prices that allowed him to preside over a period of growth and prosperity. Full Story »
Posted by Peter L. Combs
Brief sketch of current economic crisis in Russia and its possible effects on Vladimir Putin. The author poses the question of whether Russian assertiveness was a result of high oil prices or arose independently.
Putin had made clear Russia would not tolerate a Georgian military solution to the secessist problem in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The high commodity prices obtaining last summer helped encourage a vigorous Russian response to the Georgian attack on South Ossetia, but the reponse would have come anyway.
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