The Trials of Putin

Putin fights the three-headed US dog 

Update: At his year-end press conference that lasted three hours, President Putin sought to calm fears about the current rouble crisis. The rouble hit a new low of about sixty to the dollar. He said he expected the rouble to recover in perhaps two years. He also took the opportunity to express his opinion that the West is the aggressor in the current standoff with Russia. Mr. Putin compared the presence of US nuclear forces in Europe and its military bases around the world to Russia's two airbases beyond its borders in areas of unrest. He told reporters the Pentagon's budget is 10x larger than the Russian defense budget. BBC's veteran Kremlin observer called Putin's handling of the conference in which he answered questions from foreign journalists known to be hostile to him a "bravura performance".

{16.12.14} The Republican controlled Congress wants the pressure ratcheted up on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Current Occupant is complying. New economic sanctions will penalize Russia's defense and energy industries and further constrict capital flows to the country that has seen the rouble fall to a sixteen year low against the dollar in currency markets. Ukraine, the plutocrats new inamorata, will receive $350 million in military aid including weapons and surveillance equipment. Putin now faces the possibility that his economy will go into a recession due to the joint effects of formal sanctions and a western-manipulated oil market. Overnight lending rates have hit 17% indicating a severe lack of financial confidence in Russia's current economic situation. Russia's central bank has said that the $2 trillion economy may shrink 4.5% next year, and inflation is near 9%.

Nevertheless, Putin is extremely popular with his people. Russians on the street seem confident western sanctions are counter-productive and "everything will be good in the end". They lived through a previous rouble plunge in 1998; a devaluation that lead to a bond default costing western investors. Putin's relatively bloodless annexation of Crimea to protect Russian security interests is approved by most Russians. Forcing Russia to give the peninsula up short of war with NATO is unlikely. The faceless capitalist traders that make up the international currency markets could care less about Crimea. They do care very much about making money and the rouble is a profitable short.