After a wobble, crude prices have bounced back. Significantly, Russia’s stock market, which usually tracks the price of oil, has not. Until recently, Moscow was the world’s best-performing market: by its June 1 peak, it had risen 87 per cent this year. Since then, it has fallen by 20 per cent. Investors are increasingly spurning Russia, and with reason.

First, the comatose economy is barely twitching in response to government stimulus and the bouncing oil price. The World Bank this week forecast Russian output will contract 7.9 per cent this year – far worse than its “Bric” peers Brazil, India and China. Igor Shuvalov, deputy prime minister, warns the decline could be 9 per cent. That poses fiscal problems, with projected budget deficits in 2009-10 enough to wipe out the stabilisation funds into which Russia has squirrelled energy tax revenues.