Quote of the day--Russia's economic woes, from Wikipedia

The United States, the European Union and many other countries had imposed economic sanction on Russia following its military intervention in Ukraine in early 2014, Russia's annexation of Crimea and Russian assistance to separatists fighting Ukraine in the War in Donbass.[7] Despite the financial crisis, international aid to Russia was not considered likely.[15][16] Economic sanctions contributed to the decline of the ruble since Russian companies have been prevented from rolling over debt, forcing them to exchange their rubles for U.S. dollars or other foreign currencies on the open market to meet their interest payment obligations on their existing debt.[17] Fall in oil prices The Russian economy depends largely on crude oil exports. In February 2014 crude oil prices started to slide down due to the boom in American shale oil production. For every $1 decline in crude oil prices, the Russian economy loses billions of dollars. The price of oil fell from $100 per barrel in June 2014 to $60 per barrel in December 2014.[15][18][19] The drop in the oil prices was caused by a drop in the demand for oil across the world, as well as increased oil production in the United States.[20] This fall in oil prices hit Russia hard, as roughly half of the Russian Federation's governmental revenue comes from the sale of oil and gas.[19] Russia's economy suffers from Dutch disease, a term economists use to describe a situation in which a country focuses on developing its natural resources to the detriment of other economic activity.[21] In 2014, Russia needed an oil price of $100 per barrel to have a balanced budget.[22] As the price of oil falls, Russia continues to sell its oil at operational capacity, without the ability to dramatically increase oil production to compensate for the lower price, and thus due to the reduced profit from selling oil, the government has substantially lower income. Russia is not alone in feeling the ill effects of falling oil prices, as several other countries, including Venezuela, Nigeria, and Kazakhstan, also faced reduced revenues and economic activity.[23] In August 2015, oil prices fell to US$37 per barrel and then bounced to more than US$45 on 28 August.[24] Now as OPEC has reduced production from November 2016 oil prices have started to move up and so does the ruble. Other possible causes Russian President Vladimir Putin has been criticized for running a kleptocracy, in which a small number of rent-seeking plutocrats drain the economy.[25][26][27][28] Russia was ranked second in the world on The Economist's 2014 crony-capitalism index.[25] Putin accused the Western nations of engineering the Russian economic crisis.[29][30] He has also said, "Our (Western) partners have not stopped. They decided that they are winners, they are an empire now and the rest are vassals and they have to be driven into a corner."[30] Russia was already near a recession before the Crimean crisis, and Russia ranks low on the World Economic Forum's rankings of road quality, technological adaptation, and burden of government regulation.[31] Russia's already-weak economy left it less able to withstand the challenges imposed by low oil prices and international sanctions.[32] The Russian Central Bank's "erratic response" to the falling ruble has also been blamed for deepening the crisis.[33] Russian monetary policy Decline in the Russian ruble