Saudi Arabia isn't a country, it's a royal family with vassals. If they run into trouble all they need to do is knock down some of the entitlements for the vassals, or encourage them to go join a jihad, like they did with Afghanistan. The hyperinflation of the ruble is a deliberate move to inflate away foreign debt. They don't even have that much to pitch; it'll be a short-term thing. Meanwhile a crappy ruble makes Russian exports that much more competitive, while also annihilating any pension obligations and driving all savings into market liquidity. China is buying luxury goods and foreign real estate. Anyone who drinks scotch could tell you as much; they drove Laphroag up to $80 a bottle for a while. There are peculiarities associated with upper-middle-class lifestyles in a command economy and China's odd import/export behavior underlines all of them.