Who said the Russians don't know bailout? When Mikhail Fridman (close ally of Putin's administration) got himself on the wrong side of Deutsche Bank and friends to the tune of $2 billion, the Kremlin simply wrote him a check, which he steadfastly refused twice before finally giving in.
In Former-Soviet Russia, bailout begs for you.
Russia Tosses Life Preserver to One of Its Richest Men [The Wall Street Journal]
Our political leaders have played the sequester as mostly a matter of saving face, and that's pretty much all there is to the dreaded, feared sequester, sayeth Princeton economist Alan Blinder.
When Germany says 'bend over,' you say 'how far'.
Russia may have the kind of official corruption that would make a Sicilian blush, a fairly weak grasp on the rule of law, a pair of would-be czars trading its top two political posts and, now, more orphans than it can give away. It also may have a stock exchange worth as much as the big one with the columns down on Broad Street.
