3 ms·

Nightmare for whom? The creditors?

• verisimi 5y ago
  Good question! But I'm not sure bankers want it to work like that - see financial crisis, Greece, "too big to fail".
• awb 5y ago
  > a potential default that could cost investors billions and shut the country out of most funding markets. Nightmare for two groups: 1) current creditors 2) Russia, because of the difficulty in finding future creditors with reasonable terms after a default
• WheelsAtLarge 5y ago
  The collapse of the Russian economy will be felt by all the world's economy. We just don't know how hard it will be yet. Hopefully the world's bankers will be able to figure out how to soften the blow. But the Russians will really feel it. The economy will fall into a deep recession with all the social turmoil that goes with it. People tend to gravitate towards leaders that tell them that they will save them. Those usually turn out to be some kind of hard liner that leans toward dictatorship. In 1998 there was an Russian economic crisis which brought Putin to power. This time a similar leader will come to power if Putin does not survive the chaos. The irony is that if it collapses the western countries will need to help Russia recover. Otherwise the country will fall into an authoritarian regime which will be a huge problem that will need to be dealt with in the future. The collapse of the economy is a big deal both financially and politically for everybody.