It’s a peculiar contrast: Americans are furious with the perceived recession in the economy, caused by bad mortgage debt, poor fiscal planning, high energy prices, and profligate government spending on war, among other factors. This week the Russian stock market is also experiencing a record-breaking crash, despite being based upon what are in my opinion rock-solid market fundamentals. Instead, these problems are being driven by completely avoidable state intervention and an arbitrary legal-regulatory environment. Which problem would you rather have to deal with? TNK-BP CEO Robert Dudley was forced out of Russia following “sustained harassment.” Will others follow? It’s been a pretty horrible week in business news over there, and a perfect storm of unrelated events has investors running for the hills.