Russian economy 'close to tipping point'

He believes Russia’s economy is close to ‘tipping point’, as the present market is almost 35% under its peak and is trading close to seven times current earnings. “The Georgia situation was preceded by Putin’s attacks on Mechel, the mining firm, at the end of last month as well as the recent weakness in oil prices… Hence, the Russian market trades at huge discounts in an international comparison and is discounting a lot of negative newsflow,” said Konstantinov. Elena Shaftan, head of the Emerging European team at Jupiter, says at the peak of the South Ossetia conflict, the Russian stockma...