There’s a slightly worrying report today in the Wall Street Journal of Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin saying that Russia is a “weak link” in global capital markets while discussing the country’s plans to issue its first Eurobond in a decade this coming February. He’s right that Russia is a weak link; he’s wrong about the reasons why. Let’s look first at what exactly is being said:

Russia is a “weak link” in global capital markets and will be vulnerable to capital flight as other countries see their economies improve and raise interest rates, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday.

“For the moment, in this global economy our capital market is still a weak link,” Mr. Kudrin said at an economic conference. As developed economies raise interest rates, “volatility will be felt on our equity markets, in our currency exchange rate and in our trade balance.”

The central bank has said it will limit corporate borrowing abroad by state-controlled Russian companies in an effort to smooth out exchange-rate volatility and develop the country’s relatively shallow local debt market.

And then: