People need to understand what is really going on here. There is one big economic cold war being played out. The goal is to effectively clip Russia's wings economically. So the west has done its analysis of the pressure points. It has identified gas and oil as the one to go after, and is now applying the pressure, it manufactured the Georgian armed conflict and the Ukrainian gas conflict, whilst at the same time using the EU to pressurize Bulgaria financially, this is what the withheld grant money from the EU was all about. It will carry on with Belarus. The west has moved onto an economic war footing, realizing that Putin did too good a job to build back the military. This is the smile and ruin you financially approach. Russia needs to be very careful and realize what is going on. They are being subjected to a relentless war. It will be a difficult game to play, and I think Russia knows it well, it will need to concentrate on BRIC and other nations, and especially concentrate on shipping petroleum based products via sea or to customers not linked by a western vassal state. It is a huge challenge before Russia, they are effectively under western sanctions, whilst the west smiles and drinks tea with them. Russia needs to make sure it recognizes this war, doesn't open its markets and develops bi-lateral market ties with friendly nations, independent of western bodies like the WTO. It needs to be doing this whilst increasing at all times its military capability. Russia historically has been controlled by transit routes for its products, the skill is to solve this problem, BRIC and ROW is the answer not the EU and US. I think Medvedev and Putin know this. It is a huge task to navigate Russia in these circumstances, to smile back, whilst developing alternative markets. This is the big game, it is financial chess, so let the chess players be seated, remember it is practically our national game!