Putin on the Ritz
Russia heads for recession as oil prices plummet
Plummeting oil prices are pushing the Russian economy into a recession, officials in Moscow announced Tuesday. Russian leaders had been expecting their economy to grow in 2015 — but that was when they were assuming oil would remain at $100 a barrel. Revised estimates show that the country's economy will contract by 0.8 percent if prices hover around $80 per barrel. With the ruble losing value and oil now around $71 per barrel, Moscow says under a more "pessimistic" scenario, with $60-per-barrel oil, its economy could drop by up to 4 percent.