The Russian crisis

The Russian economy is on the point of collapse. The shaky structure of a pseudo market economy with super-rich tycoons, an impoverished population, an oligarchy instead of competition and ubiquitous corruption where rules of law should have been, has been shaken to its foundations.

It is the Russian people, who must have imagined something else from the new dawn following the end of communist dictatorship, who will have to foot the bill. The fact that Russians have fostered an immeasurable contempt for their "democratic" and communist politicians is understandable.

-- De Volkskrant, Amsterdam