Funny you should mention....
[QUOTE=Cruiser D]Y
Maybe the air will leak slowly out of the bubble. Doubtful, but we shall see. The upper class is tiny, the middle class is small, then there is the rest of the country. Geez, sounds like Tsarist Russia, doesn't it. :)[/QUOTE]
I am re-reading a great book on the Russian civil war (1918 - 1921) called "A people's Tragedy" by Orlando Figes. Very readable and breaks the time line leading into the revolution into small digestible events starting about 1891. What is interesting (for me anyhow) is the way he describes the massive class rivalry that existed at the time and how the Bolsheviks were able to capitalize on the tremendous resentment of the landless peasants towards the relatively tiny land owning aristocracy.
It will be interesting to see how the current regime is able to trickle down enough wealth to the masses in the provinces in order to diffuse a possible rise in discontent and (dare I say) resentment towards the power elite?
To paraphrase Churchill, "if you don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it".
But I digress - As Dr. Skank points out, the booming Russian economy is not solely being fueled by oil (no pun intended), but at $140 or even $100 a barrel there is plenty of cash flowing into Russia. That cash can be used for all sorts of cool things - just use you imagination. Without getting into specifics, I think Russia with oil at $40 a barrel would look a little different that it does now.
So, it leads me pose two questions. Does Russia benefit from high oil prices? If so, what is she prepared to do to keep them high?