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>Soviet economy was just fine at the end of the Cold War.

80 years of communism and everyone was lining up for their daily stipend of bread to eat and soap to wash themselves with.

The only reason the Russian economy even survived this long (since the cold war) is because western tech and know how unlocked oil and gas that was selling for $150 a barrel. Today the Russian economy is in severe decline with currency reserves running low. Much of what is left is spoken for. Interestingly enough Putin and his Kremlin buddies continue to steal billions from the Russian people. I'm sure if the USA wanted to it could release information regarding the 100-200 billion that has been moved out of the country since the fall of CCCP.

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The only reason the Russian economy even survived this long (since the cold war) is because western tech and know how unlocked oil and gas that was selling for $150 a barrel.

I'll consider that major bulls#!#.

The sharp jump in crude prices - from about $35/barrel in early 2003 to about $150/barrel in mid-2008 - tracks very nicely with the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Much later than that gap up, fracking, a "western tech and know how", which has been around longer than most people know, did actually help unlock oil and gas, but the effect om prices was the opposite.

http://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-char...

So what's your point that the Russian economy didn't benefit from crude at $150 a barrel? Why don't you look at capacity and correlate that to the involvement of the west after the fall of CCCP? It doubled with western help and peaked in 2013 -2014 and is in decline again. Russia still can't drill deep water and they lack a lot of other drilling technical know how.

Where did Russia get it's reserves from? Manufacturing? What do they even make that they can export? So I stand by the fact that the Russian economy would have collapsed again (3rd time in 25 years) if it weren't for $150 a barrel crude.

But it is on its way for another collapse if crude stays below $80-100 a barrel. Unless of course Donald can help out his buddy Vlad.

Everybody benefited from that sharp increase in the price of crude, but "western tech and know how" was not the cause.

> 80 years of communism and everyone was lining up for their daily stipend of bread to eat and soap to wash themselves with.

Bread was plentiful and cheap even in 1989. I don't remember lines longer than 3-5 persons in a bread store. Meat was problematic.

Yeah...plentiful. Those lines must of been for iPhones...

That's curiously right to an extent, you know. Bread had been a symbolic thing for communists from very early days. It's price was heavily subsidised and it was one of the very few food items I actually never remember there being a shortage of. Might have been different in other parts, though. Quite in contrary: bought the cheap bread to feed their animals. One of the many curious perversions of the Soviet economy.

> Yeah...plentiful. Those lines must of been for iPhones...

Dude, I lived there, and at the time described it was my responsibility to buy bread and other food staples for our family.

>The only reason the Russian economy even survived this long (since the cold war) is because western tech and know how unlocked oil and gas that was selling for $150 a barrel.

Actually, that's the whole reason why the Russian economy is doing so poorly as of late. When an economy is based largely on oil exports, and suddenly the price of oil cuts in half, the economy takes a huge hit.

Putin has spent much of his incumbency trying to diversify Russia's economy (at least so that it relies less on oil and exports). I'm not sure of a different strategy that would lead to a better economy in the long run.

> Putin has spent much of his incumbency trying to diversify Russia's economy

I'd say Putin was declaring efforts to diversify the economy. In practice necessary actions weren't taken in needed quantities.

There are good examples of saying one thing, doing completely the opposite with the modern Russian government. That difference is a part of why it's hard to deal with Russia.

>I'd say Putin was declaring efforts to diversify the economy. In practice necessary actions weren't taken in needed quantities.

You're probably right about that. But even then, oil has largely contributed to the recent downsides of Russia's economy, has it not?

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