S. Adam Cardais of TOL writes that Russia is “basking” in its the international glamor of being able to bailout Iceland: “And Russia is positioned, as a revitalized once-superpower flush with cash, to rescue Iceland, a NATO member praised for its chart-topping living standard! To Putin and the Kremlin, could there be a sweeter arc to the last two decades of Russian history?” Anne Applebaum at the Washington Post is taking another approach, arguing that the syndrome being experience in Iceland is spreading quickly and uncontrollably – making the Russian some intervention irrelevant. Applebaum’s frightening but convincing prediction is that the economic crisis is opening up a series of opportunities for unscrupulous trans-national economic sabotage and subterfuge, which could involve everyone from unfriendly neighbors, former imperial powers, and any government with an axe to grind.

The case of Iceland, which in recent weeks has nationalized its three major banks, shut its stock exchange and halted trading in its currency, is by now well known. Less well known is the speed with which the Icelandic disease is spreading. Consider Hungary, once the destination of choice for investors who wanted an Eastern European head office with a 19th-century facade and a pastry shop next door: The currency is in free fall and so is the stock market, flummoxing those previously well-fed investors. (One of them told a Hungarian financial Web site: “I haven’t got a clue as to when and how this would end, I’m just staring into empty space.”) Or Ukraine, whose central bank governor declared his banking system “normal and reliable” on Monday of last week. By Tuesday of last week, Ukraine had desperately requested ” systemic support” from the IMF.