I'm not entirely sure about that being the Saudi's move. I suspect they cut a deal with the US to destabilize the Russian economy (remember that at the time whe

I'm not entirely sure about that being the Saudi's move. I suspect they cut a deal with the US to destabilize the Russian economy (remember that at the time when a lot of the big changes were being implemented by Saudi Arabia, Russia was using oil money to fund some aggressive moves in the ex-Soviet bloc). Fracking cutbacks in the US may have been one of the things the US traded for that.