“The witch has lost: now everything is permitted” seems to be the operative motto of the day in the Kremlin and its environs. Thus, the de-facto leader of the opposition – the only opposition politician with presidential potential – is to be further harassed and, possibly, imprisoned on transparently bogus charges.
Russia’s long slide to misery has slowed down and will probably slow down some more; horizontal sections of the drain will feel like growth, briefly. On the bright side, if a universal, all-encompassing volatility index existed, it would be at its 25-year highs. Things might get a little nonlinear in some places.