For all the sanctions Western leaders can throw at Russia, the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s ability to back separatists in east Ukraine is something beyond his or their control: the price of oil. With Russia’s $2 trillion economy heavily dependent on crude exports, oil prices are always closely monitored by the Kremlin, but the government is particularly wary now as tensions with the West mount and sanctions ratchet up. Such conflicts often push up crude prices, but as long as oil, which accounts for 40 percent of state revenues, remains above the average $104 per barrel written into the 2014 budget, Moscow has little immediate need to worry. The alarm […]