It's not a good time to be Vladimir Putin. Faced with collapsing oil prices and sanctions from the west, the Russian economy is on the verge of going into recession. The ruble is collapsing, inflation is spiking, and the Russian Central Bank is depleting its reserves of foreign currency, limiting its ability to prop up its own currency. Let's take a quick look at some charts that show the pain being inflicted on the Russian economy. First, the price of oil has dropped to its lowest in half a decade. This is a result of a slowing global economy, and booming production. Oil's slide recently accelerated when OPEC ... (full story)