Economy continues to falter in low oil price environment under Russian President Vladimir Putin. (UPI /Omar Rashidi) MOSCOW, Jan. 15 (UPI) — Oil priced at $40 per barrel is the benchmark against which the Russian economy is weighed in a new forecast, a Russian central bank official said. The Bank of Russia revised its worst-case scenario from oil priced below the $60 per barrel mark. A revised stress test puts oil at a further discount. “The $40-per-barrel [scenario] is among likely scenarios that we are looking at,” First Deputy Chair Xenia Yuadaeva said Wednesday. Russia’s economy is strained by dual pressures from Western sanctions imposed after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the low price of oil, down more than $50 per barrel from June 2014. The Russian currency continues to trade at historic lows, valued at 64 per U.S. dollar in current trading. The Russian bank in […]