My apologies. Obviously my sarcasm meters have been damaged by being unable to distinguish between apocalyptic end-times stories and reality.
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Russian economy is already not doing OK. The sanctions are a factor, but a minor one; the bigger issues are the costs of the wars in Ukraine and Syria, and – most important by far – the low oil prices.
Russian economy is vitally dependent on the oil and gas incomes, and currently they’re facing problems because so much of their extractive industry has been relying on old Soviet stuff and things built in the nineties. They need a lot of investment into their energy sector, badly, to keep their production and refining capabilities up: not expand, just keep them where they are now. Of course, in the current global climate, with tensions between Russia and the US, and Russia and the EU, those investments are hard to come by. (The weakness of the rule of law, especially anywhere connected to the fossil fuels and other “vital national interests” does not help any.)
And they have similar problems all over their industrial economy. Russia succumbed to the old mistake of extractive economies during the years of high oil prices, and failed to invest in reforming the rest of their industrial base – they could buy things from elsewhere, and investments to oil and gas gave a bigger return – so now they are not doing so well.
I’m not saying Russia is about to collapse soon. But they’re not doing OK by any means, and they really can’t afford to try and pull off some ten-year plan that will piss off United States mightily.
You’re not alone in that. No apologies needed.
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Not surprising. Kitties are so fastidious, and tar sands just… won’t… do.
Don’t worry, we’ll continue subsidizing it.
Because if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that the future is powered by the filthiest and most expensive non-renewable power sources
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