> My guess is that the Saudis hope to knock out a large part of the recent supply in the word market, and can then start to throttle back production. Later they will reap the rewards of higher prices and market share, which will more than make up for the losses they are enduring today.

Bold move, given the long-term trend toward renewables. That aside, the principle behind this is presumably based on the premise that Riyadh has larger financial reserves than Moscow, allowing it to sustain a lower oil price for much longer. How confident should they be in that premise?

Obviously the ruble has gone through the floor, but Russia has been investing heavily in au for a long time. There's also considerable speculation that it has been heavily under-reporting its actual reserves for some time (along with China, which invites all sorts of doomsday theories, the legitimacy of which I am not informed enough to adjudge one way or another).