No, Obama, Russia's economy isn't in tatters
It's time to bury the expectation that Russia's economy will fall apart under pressure from falling oil prices and Western sanctions, and that Russians, angered by a drop in their living standards, will rise up and sweep President Vladimir Putin out of office.
U.S. sanctions are a tragedy for Cuba, farce for Russians
Western leaders imposing sanctions on Russia need to ponder whether they really want to turn Vladimir Putin's Russia into something like Castro's Cuba — only far bigger and more dangerous.
The decision by Russia's Central Bank to practically double interest rates in the middle of the night is a bad sign. The question now is how President Vladimir Putin will double-down to get Russia through a perfect economic storm.
Three 'geos' push the world but leave Russia in a cloud
All the colonial empires of the 20th century have given way to young nation-states and to a new kind of relations between a capital and its former colonies, yet official Russia goes on shedding tears about its disintegrated empire.
Russia, Europe in a race to the bottom
As Europe and Russia head into another round of sanctions, economic data are driving home the point that nobody stands to win in this tit-for-tat battle.
The Kremlin's dismay at the scale and longevity of protests in Moscow and other cities, following the fraudulent election in December 2011, is forcing Putin to find new ways to shore up his presidency.
