> I don't know if it's meaningful in the current context
> (as in I doubt it will determine the final outcome
> much) but the US and Russian economies have very few
> points of contect. Russian exports to the States are
> extremely small, and the Russian economic boom is
> almost entirely domestically financed (and of course
> helped to a large extent on exports to Europe and the
> other CIS countries).
=========================
True, but the Russians like everyone else would worry about the knock-on
effects of a serious US economic downturn on the world economy, including
crashing energy prices and a sharp drop in European demand which would
affect them directly. That's why the excesses of the US economy - and, by
extension, it's foreign policies - are tolerated by states and peoples who
otherwise hate and compete with American capitalism. More immediately
relevant to Russia, isn't the planned development of it's LNG reserves,
especially in the Barents Sea, being driven by the prospect of being able to
ship energy to the vast US market, and isn't US investment being invited in
these projects?