And guess who (and his friends) have a shitload of extra money? Hint: the name rhymes with Scootin’.
I’m sure he has billions to his name. But, based on the replies to the thread I would fall on the side that the goal here is for some extra cash in a hurry. Putin’s personal finances are separate from the Russian government’s and the Russian people’s.
Economic stimulus whole trying to get a new Constitution that re-ups his position as the head of the country installed, without having to murder too many angry citizens, seems like the order of the day.
The fact that shale oil is on the ropes doesn’t surprise me at all. It was doomed from the beginning. Shale oil extraction is simply uneconomical. It only worked as a financial stunt during the low interest lending orgy of the past decade. Shale is an industry that had spent the last decade demonstrating that it can’t make a red cent in profit. The industry is drowning in debt. Sooner rather than later, the financing will dry up entirely.