With news emerging that oil prices have declined by 26 percent since the beginning of October — from north of $90 per barrel to less than $70 — syndicated columnist George Will said this is a reminder that Russia “is a third-world country with first-world missiles.”
Will also remarked to Fox News host Bret Baier that Russia has a “hunter-gatherer economy” and are “primitives,” adding that oil prices are “devastating” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position of strength in the global economy.
The conservative columnist made the comments on “Special Report” to Baier as part of the show’s “all-star panel.”
George Will: “Putin’s truculence varies inversely with the strength of his position, and he’s very truculent these days because his position is suffering terrific economic damage by southern Ohio and North Dakota and other places like that that are producing this geyser of oil that’s supplanting Russia as the principle producer of petroleum products. The restrictions–I think the sanctions we put on the banking forms are particularly having an effect also.”
“What this is demonstrating to the world, and good to learn this again, that Russia is a third world economy with first world missiles. There is no consumer product except vodka and caviar you’d buy from that country. They make nothing. They have a hunter-gatherer economy, which is to say they are primitives. They extract things, including eggs from fish for caviar. It’s a simple extraction industry, and it’s extremely vulnerable there for to the sway of one price: the price of oil and it’s just devastating his position.”