Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Walter Russell Mead: Ruble crisis puts Putin’s back against the wall
Pedestrians walk under a board listing foreign currency rates against the Russian ruble outside an exchange office in central Moscow on Dec. 1, 2014.
It's panic time in Moscow, as the deadly double whammy of collapsing oil prices and Western sanctions is knocking the Russian economy into recession. Nothing the government can do has been able to stem the accelerating selloff in Russian assets, and the meltdown has gone so far that average people increasingly understand that their economic futures are at risk.
