UPDATE: Military alliance for sale: $5.5 billion USD or best offer (sorry, we do not accept Króna at this time)

This is a bit of a follow-up to my post about Lehman’s potential significance to Iceland’s current economic Disaster (capital ‘D’ to distinguish it from the dozen or so other disasters.  They look to be most imperiled at the moment, and that’s saying something in the current field of competition).  More of an update, I guess.

Naked Capitalism (probably my favorite econ site, not just blog, despite it’s very heavy use of straight article quotes.  It always has some of the highest level you’ll find in economics writing and the appropriate mix of seriousness and humour in it’s tone.  Oh, and it happens to be extremely thoughtful and provides tremendous insight in to economics from all angles) has a post quoting liberally from Reuters about a SHOCKING development in the Icelandic economic crisis:  Iceland is seeking $5.5B USD from Russia of assistance (who isn’t?) from… RUSSIA (dah dah dah duuuum!)

Looks like someone is trying to make the EU jealous.  And maybe a bit scared, since according to an article in The Spectator that NC links to, Iceland may be providing military bases to Russia in return.  If they can somehow involve an underwater missile launch pad and a superspy skiing to his apparent death off a ledge, then deploying a Union Jack parachute to the dismay of his commie pursuers, Roger Moore may return to prominence.  God, I miss him.  he had the best James Bond-actor signature move:  Daring skydiving escapes (and maybe laser beam space fights).  Certainly superior to Sean Connery’s shocking physical and sexual violence against women, or Pierce Brosnan’s being really, really, really handsome.

Oh, and I really like the growing popularity of countries NOT allowing the IMF to screw them.  I’m glad someone finally looked at the track record of IMF involvement and realized there are less-demanding allies if you’re looking to destroy your economy, political structure, and the health of 95% of your population.  Becoming the subservient ally of a real-life James Bond Villain, Vladimir Putin, is a much better deal.

UPDATE:

So Putin’s got a new buddy now, according to Mish and the Times Online:

“The Icelandic central bank said that Russia had agreed to provide Iceland with a €4 billion (£3.1 billion) loan to strengthen foreign reserves and support the Icelandic crown [Króna], which fell by 35 per cent on Monday.”

Looks like Russia threw in a few extra hundred million too.  But it didn’t keep Icesave from freezing its accounts (read the Mish post for more).

… and the cow goes moo.