Russia risks Soviet-style collapse as rouble defence fails

Daily Telegraph ^ | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

[Buckeye McFrog]

The Saudis no doubt are also doing their best to hamstring the efforts of the Persians to dominate that region.

[wetphoenix]

~One communist tactic is to destabilize the civil order, then use the confusion to rush in and establish a new form of government.
Watch carefully to see if this is happening in Russia.~

Leftists are running wild since 2011 in Russia. No less than John McCain was agitating them, he even wrote a propaganda piece for Pravda calling for a new revolution.

[captain_dave]

Some people may not like Mr. Putin, but this economic war against Russia will have unintended consequences that will not be good for us. Other countries see us using money as a weapon.

What happens when Russia is forced to renege on its dollar denominated debt, as it eventually must? The shock waves will undermine the already fragile European banks.

What will China do? They were stunned by how quickly the US wiped out Iraq in the Gulf War 1, and are feverishly modernizing their military. This will cause them to reevaluate their economic position. They will realize - they probably do already - that they are too tied to the US and too vulnerable to this sort of economic warfare.

I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Dollar as the international currency.

[FreeReign]

(The Saudi's are flooding the market to lower prices to help slow down the US exploration and use of shale and oil sands, which are currently only viable over $60-70/barrel.)

No.

Saudi oil production is down in 2014.

[riverdawg]

“I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Dollar as the international currency.”

And it’s going to be replaced with ... what” The Euro? The yuan? Both Russia and China are too dependent on exports (Russia on oil and China on cheap manufactured goods) to maintain a stable currency for global transactions. And the Euro zone is likely to contract in the next decade, not expand.

[Star Traveler]

Saudi Arabia’s oil war against Iran and Russia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3237849/posts

[dfwgator]

My fear is that it could push the Russians even further to the Left, into the arms of Zyuganov and the Communists.

[Nip]

This will be the second time within a generation that a sitting Russian government has fallen due to economic pressures.

IMHO the first time occurred in the mid to late 1980’s when the economic impact of Reagan’s SDI (aka “Star Wars”) program hit. There the Soviet government was faced with either continuing the old ways and becoming economically and politically irreverent or drastically changing. They attempted both and failed at both.

Now, 2014, Russia is facing a second economic crises because the US becoming, again, an economic power house through oil production (aka fracking). The current Russian leadership is facing almost the same economic and political choices as an earlier generation did in the 1980’s. With the egos involved and the Russian basic socio-political mindset there is no easy alternative. In the near-term future Russia will have to accept, again, second hand status when it comes to world economic-political-military power.

I have only two questions.

1. When will the third such crises hit Russia?

2. When will the Russian society really change? After three economic collapses in 100 years with two leading to drastic changes in types of central governments something has got to give.

[elhombrelibre]

I think you’re right to point out sarcastically that the Russians are not going to rise up and demand freedom. They’ve never been that keen on self-government. Like you, they believe Putin’s swell, and that there is nothing use freedom for anyway beyond those things that fags and homos do. I guess they never had civics lessons, nor did you obviously.

[elhombrelibre]

I think you’re right to point out sarcastically that the Russians are not going to rise up and demand freedom. They’ve never been that keen on self-government. Like you, they believe Putin’s swell, and that there is nothing use freedom for anyway beyond those things that fags and homos do. I guess they never had civics lessons, nor did you obviously.

[elhombrelibre]

You’re probably right that many people won’t understand the market forces at work, that Putin brought on the economic sanctions, and that Putin and his cronies have mismanaged their economy. There is a huge blame America first crowd out there. Demagogues can tell them anything and blame the Jews or the Americans. Recently, we’ve had a lot of these types posting on FreeRepublic, too.

[Thunder90]

Time to go in for the kill shot. Declare Russia a terrorist state and shut them off from the world.