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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]IMO, the Soviet Union's collapse was probably accelerated 5-15 years by Reagan.

1) Soviets subsidized their satellites (wheat, $, etc.)
2) Soviets began having problems feeding themselves in the 1960s. To continue their subsidies, they had to buy more wheat on the world market requiring $. 
3) Soviet main source of $ was gold and oil.
4) Gold cratered from $800/oz to $200/oz between 1980 and 1986. Oil cratered from $80/bbl to $15/bbl in that timeframe as well
5) Reagan convinced the Saudis to agree to an oil output increase, during a time when the Soviets had to spend more $ on Afghanistan and shiny new missiles to keep up with Reagan's defense spending increases. This in addition to buying grain and other subsidies to their satellites.

http://www.aei.org/feature/the-soviet-collapse/[/quote]

Nice lie there.  Anyone who pulls the Saudi oil output numbers can demonstrate it is a lie.  When Reagan came into office, they were pumping >10 mil a day.by the end of his term it was 5.5m barrels.[/quote]

http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=sa&product=oil&graph=production

In 1985 Saudi Arabia was pumping 3.388 million barrels a day; it had increased to a bit over 5 million barrels. This was apparently enough to take the price of oil from the mid-20s to the mid-teens.

With that said, the fact of the matter is that the Soviets were getting squeezed financially by cratering gold/oil prices in 1985 (went from mid-20s to mid-teens), this cannot be disputed. The Baltics and other ex-USSR states were allowed to be let go after the West threatened to not send the Soviets/Russians $100B of loans in the early 1990s.

And yes, Saudi Arabia changed tack in the mid 1980s -- oil even went below $10 a barrel for a while.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_oil_glut

http://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,961087,00.html[/quote]

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