The Russian economy (catch all)

[AmericanPride]

A concern about the economic stability of the Eurozone:

The energy war, coupled with the trade war that has broken out due to the implementation of the sanctions regime against Russia, may result in Europe’s backsliding into a recession next year. We may already be seeing signs of it. On Wednesday, the eurozone PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) hit a fourteen-month low, while France’s continued to contract and Germany’s fell to a fifteen-month low. Meanwhile, a sanctions-induced reduction in oil flows from Russia could further stifle eurozone growth by 1 to 1.5 percentage points in 2015.

[AmericanPride]

And despite it all, Putin's approval rating is even higher than when Russia seized Crimea:

We shouldn’t assume that Putin is “losing” because…well, because so far Russians haven’t held him responsible for any of the negative consequences of his Ukraine policy. Perhaps they will in the future, but the reality is that Putin might very well be more politically powerful at the moment than at any other time in the past decade and a half.