Wednesday December 3, 2014

// December 3rd, 2014 // Daily News

Vladimir Putin’s worst nightmare may be happening right now

A plummeting currency, rising inflation and sagging oil prices — that’s the stuff Vladimir Putin’s nightmares are probably made of.
The former KGB operative has staked his reputation for years on Russia’s spectacular economic growth throughout the 2000s, thanks to its dependence on increasingly lucrative energy exports.
As the price of oil, Russia’s most important export, climbed from $16 a barrel in 1999 to more than $140 in 2008, a new middle class enjoyed the fruits of prosperity, eagerly burying the memories of the impoverished 1990s.
But as the Kremlin now lords over Ukraine and stares down the West, Putin’s nationalist gambit is finally being felt on the home front, threatening the central notion that’s helped keep him in power so long.
“The myth of ‘stability’ has now been broken,” says Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Russian rubles on display in front of a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ulrich Baungarten | Getty Images
Russian rubles on display in front of a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While Putin’s grip on power is still far from tenuous, the steady stream of gloomy economic news is probably causing at least some concern in the Kremlin.
The effects of Western sanctions and steady drop in global oil prices to a five-year low of below $70 this week are costing Russia some $140 billion annually, according to the government’s own estimates.
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Russian officials on Tuesday warned the country faces a recession in 2015 that could see the economy shrink for the first time in five years.
They believe it will contract by 0.8 percent next year, down from a previous estimate of 1.2 percent growth.
Ordinary Russians have watched as their currency lost nearly 40 percent of its value since the beginning of the year. They can also expect double-digit inflation by early next year, officials predict.
Taken together, these stats are why Putin has long stopped trumpeting his country’s economic statistics in order to boost popular support, says Alexander Baunov, an editor of one of Russia’s only remaining independent news outlets.

Today’s Inspiration

An Inheritance of Peace

by Joyce Meyer – posted December 03, 2014

Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
—John 14:27

The word bequeath in this verse is a term used in the execution of wills. In preparation for death, people usually bequeath their possessions, especially those things of value, as a blessing to those they love who are left behind.

Jesus knew He was about to pass from this world and He wanted to leave us something. He could have left any number of good things, like His power and His name, and He did. But He also left us His peace.

You don’t leave junk for people you love—you leave them the best you have. Jesus had a special kind of peace that surpassed anything mankind had ever known. He knew it was one of the most precious things He could give. Ask for and receive your inheritance tonight!

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