[chud]

I'm actually concerned about this because I wouldn't be surprised if the US is somehow behind the falling oil prices, for the express purpose of hurting the Russians and Putin.
If that is the case, I think Obama is playing a dangerous game by poking and irritating Putin.
A war with Russia would be very damaging to our economy (among other things) right now.

[armydawg505]

Fear not, Obama is very anti energy independence for the US. It hurts his cronies in the middle east and reduces his flexibility with Putin. Obama would do nothing to help this country move forward.

[bray]

Your forgot the /s.
Obama helping the oil industry and hurting Russia, that is really funny.

Pray America is waking

[Bobalu]

Could Russian economic turmoil lead to Putin’s downfall?

Could Russian economic turmoil lead to war?

The latter is much more likely.

[Starboard]

A cornered rat is very dangerous. To follow your line of thinking, Putin may decide that provoking an incident with the U.S. might be beneficial to him. If he’s going to do something like that, it will likely be in 2015 IMO to take advantage of Obama’s weakness. Can anyone imagine Obama responding decisively against any such aggression? If Putin gets away with it, he boosts his own standing as a force to reckon with. And the world still respects power.

Not rooting for Putin, just looking at options from his perspective.