Oil and Fragility

The U.S. economy chokes whenever there is a spike in oil prices.

Meanwhile, as the New York Times puts it, Russia Cashes In on Anxiety Over Supply of Middle East Oil.

That is what Taleb would call anti-fragility.

By the way, Russian equities - including their gigantic energy companies Lukoil and Gazprom - trade at much lower multiples than U.S. or Chinese stocks. This is ostensibly because of Russian corruption.

Yet people are OK with buying Mexican century bonds or Chinese stocks or the Market Vectors® Africa Index ETF, which is 21% invested in Egypt and 16% in Nigeria.

The question: what distinguishes Russia from these other basketcases in the eyes of investors?