Rusophobia is in fashion, but that does not make what is said about true. Russia, like China are in the best position to weather the financial chaos we are going through. Russia is in much better position than any country in Europe and A in better position than America. Why ?, simply because they have 1/2 trillion dollars in reserves and a national debt so low it is the envy of any developing and developed country. They are the second oil exporter and tone of he largest gas exporters. The current spat about gas with Ukraine will resolve itself with Europe and Russia paying for the technical gas required to supply gas to Europe (by the way, that is gas that Ukraine stole from the system). Eventually it means that new pipelines will get built by-passing completele Ukraine. Just because the fellow that spoke at BNN comes with a pedigree, it does not mean that he is not peddling somebody else's agenda. New technologies to take the world away from hydrocarbon based energy will not replace hydrocarbons in your or my lifetime, and those who own this energy sources are in a commanding position to do well going forward. As for Gazprom, if we used a more aggressive way of looking at it and similar western companies, its size is 6 times larger than Exxon in terms of hydrocarbon reserves. Russia's problem is that it is still transitioning to a capitalistic economy, and the process is far from complete, but they will get there. The Rubble has fallen, and may fall further. This is true for any commodity exporting nation, a cycle that will reverse itself when the global economy rebounds. Another reason for falling curencies around the world has to do with the massive trillion-dollar stimulus packages in progress in the US and Europe. Simply it means that the US and Europe are repatriating their currencies, and foreign investors and goverments must sell local currencies, buy US dollars and Euros to lend it to them. Read various sources (for and against) my fellow poster and come up with your own assessment, rather than simply peddle what someone else said.

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