These are tough times for the Russian economy – and those days when the political leadership was bragging about its easy liquidity and its status as a shelter during the storm seem quite distant indeed. Credit is tightening up, so major international banks and financial institutions are all calling for early repayment of their loans to big businesses, and Russia’s many over-leveraged multi-billionaires are finding themselves hard pressed to come up with cash to keep the various companies and assets they have pledged as collateral. One need not worry about the fates of the country’s numerous billionaire elite businessmen. Today trading surged on the Russian markets for the first time in weeks after the state bank VEB deployed the first measures of its rescue plan for Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska, and no doubt many others will follow. But what about ordinary Russian citizens, struggling to pay off debts with rising prices, unemployment (Severstal cut its workforce by 25%), and upcoming inflation? Toss them in the gulag. Echo Moskvy reports on a new law going through the Duma which will make citizens criminally liable for prison sentences if they fail to repay loans. Sure, that ought to encourage small business innovation. Translation below.