The risk posed by capital flight is all the more acute because the economy is already ailing. The long boom that once seemed to justify its inclusion in the BRICs—a group of big, fast-growing emerging economies whose other members were Brazil, China and India—is over. In the decade until the financial crisis of 2008, Russian output raced ahead at an average 7% a year, boosted by surging oil and gas prices. But the recovery after the 2009 recession was less impressive, with growth averaging 4% in 2010-12. Even before the IMF’s gloomy revision, growth had already slowed to a crawl (see chart).
