Russia and Iraq

[ChrisD(RJ)]

And from what I remember, the
- - -years of Russian recovery (1999) was also the year inwhen oil prices
- - -started to recover (of course, devaluation of ruble itself improved
- - -trade balance and reactivated local industry, since Russian consumer
- - -couldn•t afford imported goods).
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BTW, the groups that were really hit by the devaluation of the ruble were
government employees, pensioners and the elite. The middle class gets paid
in dollars anyway, and the poor were already drifting through the shadow
economy. It really weakened the power of the oligarchs. Probably a good
thing in the long run.