Comments made over the weekend by Saudi Arabia's powerful oil minister Ali Naimi that the kingdom would not cut production even if prices fell to a level of $20 per barrel will have sent a cold chill through the corridors of the Kremlin where preparations are already being made to cope with a deep economic recession. Russia is being squeezed hard by a combination of tough trade and financial sanctions and plummeting oil prices, which are eroding its main source of hard foreign currency earnings.