A comment piece by Robert Manning on Atlantic Council takes a look at Russia’s economic difficulties, concluding that it is misleading to list the market about the BRIC economies.

We are still having summits, and Russia is still in decline, a country with the dubious distinction of the first industrialized nation with a declining mortality rate and a population that has declined by seven million since 1992. Despite its cocky posture as one of the BRICs, the Russian economy had minus 10% growth in the first half of 2009, and is projected to grow at minus 2% for the year. Russia’s banking system is deeply in debt, in the $450 billion range, and even mighty Gazprom is scrounging around for cash, with key gas pipeline projects at risk. And then there is the episodic nastiness in the Caucuses.