The scribbly is looking at it from a western perspective because that's what Russia has evolved into, or at least, is trying to. We know where Putin is drawing his war chest from..
?????? ?????? :: 2014
Those figures are scant, the additional danger is that the fund has been buying Russian institution and bank instruments which are hurtling South too, and recently, more natural resource debt was added to the shopping trolley. That has a plummeting value. His shopping trolley has been changed; no longer one of those lithe ones, now he has swapped it for a deep weekly shop jobber. The wheels are groaning under the weight of all the stuff being chucked into it, I think there was another $10 billions last week.
TASS: Economy - Russian Finance Ministry to buy VTB, Rosselkhozbank shares worth $6.6 billion
He is doing what we did (say, supporting Northern Rock) but he is doing it on a grand scale. We did it by creating money (I agree, we just kicked the problem to the right) but he is taking hard cash from future pensioners. The problem is, our destinies are all linked now - his czarist pretensions become our economic malaise. The worrying thing for Russia (and us) is, sentiment turned away from Russia long before this happened, God know what it's going to be like after it has all (hopefully) been resolved.
http://www.trustnet.com/Factsheets/F...e=HXF56&univ=T
On the plus side, fewer Russians in the pool bar maybe. ;-)