James Carville, campaign manager to President Bill Clinton back in 1992, put it with characteristic directness. “If there was a reincarnation,” he said, “I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”

Perhaps Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the prime minister who still seems to be calling the shots in Moscow, ought to pay a bit more attention to such sentiments. In a matter of weeks, the markets in Russia have turned on a combination of economic doubts, business fears and a sudden change in the assessment of political risk. An exodus of foreign capital, a dearth of credit from Russian banks and a loss of confidence among Russian as well as foreign shareholders have transformed the mood in Moscow from over-confidence to gloom.