Buoyed by vast oil wealth, Russia seen shrugging off market collapse

MOSCOW: Buoyed by vast oil wealth, Russia is shrugging off its worst market meltdown in a decade, emerging with its booming economy almost intact, analysts say.

The Russian stock market last week saw its sharpest falls since the catastrophic economic collapse of 1998 after suffering the toxic combination of global financial turmoil, falling commodity prices and a local credit crunch.


But with oil prices still almost 10 times higher than a decade ago, economists see Russia emerging with a relatively mild hangover.

The collapse was a