The old Soviet Union was all but impervious to foreign economic or business pressure. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Russian troops pour over a border. An autocratic Russian leader blames the United States and unspecified “radicals and nationalists” for meddling. A puppet leader pledges fealty to Moscow. It’s no wonder the crisis in Ukraine this week drew comparisons to Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 or that a chorus of pundits proclaimed the re-emergence of the Cold War. But there’s at least one major difference between then and now: Moscow has a stock market. Continue reading the main story Under the autocratic grip of President Vladimir Putin , Russia may be a democracy in name only, but the gyrations of the Moscow stock exchange provided a minute-by-minute referendum on his military and diplomatic actions. On […]