I don't think Russia can be ignored in light of growing relations between Russia and China. Russia and China have different economic strengths and weaknesses th

I don't think Russia can be ignored in light of growing relations between Russia and China. Russia and China have different economic strengths and weaknesses that make a Russian/Chinese bloc stronger than the sum of its parts. A large part of US diplomatic work in the Middle East over the past year has been an effort to undercut Russian oil prices so that Russian oil isn't economically viable, with great success. But this is a band-aid. Even with the current US economy, the incentives that the US is providing to i.e. Saudi Arabia to keep oil prices low are tenuous; a dip in the US economy will make it impossible to maintain these incentives even if Saudi Arabia continues to be satisfied with them.