It's going to turn into a really wild ride, because so many of the past investors in Russia aren't just pulling out all the stops to extract their Russian investments, but even maintenance credit flow into Russia is just flat out evaporating. Russia is all of the sudden coming across as an investment of last, worst resort - and that's only if you are ready to lose 100% of your capital. If "preservation of capital" is a primary goal, Russia is fast getting a reputation as a place to avoid.

And this isn't being driven by Western governments either - this is virtually all market driven. It certainly isn't helping any that the liquidity crisis in Western financial markets is happening, because much of that capital coming out of Russia, or not being invested there, is instead going into recapitalizing Western financial institutions. They (the money people) think the money is safer going into Western financial institutions, rather than into the Russian economy. Not sure I'd necessarily agree with that (I'd be looking hard for "Door Number 3", personally), but it's their money.

And with oil heading down to the $100 a Bbl. basis, even more of an impact. One of the real tipoffs on how Russian business is going are the occupancy levels at Moscow area hotels. Prior to Georgia, the higher end Moscow area hotels were booked solid, right at/around 100% of the listed price (literally for months). If you were spending an extended period of time in Russia, it was easier and less expensive to rent than get extended hotel stays.

Article on the Russian Hospitality Market

Let's just say that Western hotel expansion plans for Russia have hit a very abrupt wall, in the financing area.

Rule 1: Do not go out of your way to make the capital markets skittish - there's a lesson here for a lot of nations, including the US.