However bad the US markets are, the Russian market is far worse, falling by about 50% in the last few months. FT:

Russian shares suffered their steepest one-day fall in more than a decade on Tuesday, losing up to 20 per cent, as a sharp slide in oil prices and difficult money market conditions triggered a rush to sell…trading had been suspended on both the Micex and RTS stock exchanges as investors ignored assurances by Russian officials and a cycle of distrust set in…Alexei Kudrin, finance minister, insisted that the financial system was not in a systemic crisis

Among the morals to the story might be: (a) don’t invade Georgia and trigger enormous capital outflows; (b) don’t be an economic one-trick pony, dependent on oil and commodities for growth during a massive sell-off in these asset categories; and (c) don’t run a country and an economy like the Mafia. Hmmm. So that purchase of a house in France for $750 million was a market top after all.

OOPS: Russian markets were shut again for a second day as government measures failed to work…

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