If the doom and gloom from our own economy isn't enough for you

Kyrgyzstan is going to shut down the American military base at Manas. Our military officials say this won't affect operations in Afghanistan, but I think that's downplaying the situation a bit since, as the article mentions, militants recently blew up a key bridge along a supply route in Pakistan. Not being able to use the Kyrgyz base will make things a bit tougher. Tensions have been high since an incident in 2006 when a Kyrgyz man was shot by a U.S. soldier, but although many resent the presence of American soldiers, blaming them for everything from wounding national pride to destroying their grazing land - one farmer said the Americans were bad for the Kyrgyz nature - I doubt that's the leading factor. Kyrgyzstan will be getting about $2 billion dollars in credit from Moscow.

I'm not really sure what the thinking on this is. Moscow wants the U.S. out of its backyard, sure, but it's putting Kyrgyzstan in a bit of bind here. The Kyrgyz can't afford to lose us as an ally and while the economic aid from Russia will temporarily lift some of the economic pressure every country in Central Asia is feeling, if the Russian economy goes further down the drain what are they going to do?

And speaking of Russia's woes, the rouble hit an all time low this week, Bulgaria is demanding a new gas deal after being cutoff a few months ago, Fitch has downgraded Russia's debt rating to the second lowest investment grade -this is the first time its been hit since the fun times of 1998 - and the government is also bailing out their banks, injecting about $33 billion in exchange for 25-30% stakes in the various companies. The financial sector was one of the few areas the Kremlin didn't gobble up significant portions of over the best decade, probably because Russia was booming. It's going to be an interesting couple of months.

And finally, in what is surely a blow to national pride, Andrei Arshavin has left St. Petersburg and will transfer to Arsenal. He could have at least gone to Chelsea, but hey given the recent speculation of a bidding war involving every Britons favorite enemy, The Russian Billionaire, the Gunners could be experiencing a Slavic invasion soon.