Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia told a government meeting, that United States failed to take adequate steps in response to the global financial crisis. He went on to say that what is happening today, and it is known to have started in the United States.... it is not due to the irresponsibility of certain people, but the irresponsibility of a system.

According to RIA Novosti, the Russian stock market gave in to panic on Monday with the MICEX dropping 18.6 percent to 752 points, while the RTS fell 19.1 percent to 866.39 points - the worst losses since the 1998 crash. Russia's financial system has been affected by a global credit crunch that started in the U.S. and is quickly spreading  to Asia and Europe, It has led to record losses on Russia's financial markets.

It all started with Americans borrowing money on real estate (at least this is the theory of a very qualified relative of mine). American banks gave too many credits to consumers- even to those who did not deserve mortgage credit. Naturally, the lenders took a big risk, but hoped they could squeak out a nice profit for themselves anyways. The system was quite stable, except for a few bad-apple defaulters. What suddenly happened, however, is that the amount of defaulters reached a critical mass, which triggered losses in the financial markets.

The fact that American banks don't have money means that Russian banks lack liquidity as well. One of the glaring reasons why the U.S. banks lost money was due to their careless attitude over their client's ability to pay back the house over the long haul.