The second day of plenary discussions at The Russia Forum 2012 was launched by Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. He was introduced by Ruben Vardanian, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Troika Dialog, who reminded the audience that in his first year as head of the Russian capital, Mr Sobyanin has already initiated several reforms to transform Moscow into a modern metropolis which is comfortable to live and do business in and a place that is appealing to both Russians and foreigners.

Eric Kraus is known to old Russia hands as a managing director of several Moscow investment banks. His recent comments inspired by an interview with Russia's Channel One are required strategic reading and are reproduced here as a transcript originally published on http://community.nasdaq.com.

Channel One: The president of the World Bank has just warned that the world is "one shock away from a (new) full-blown crisis." Does the crisis have to be "global" -- can Russia avoid it?

Eric Kraus: The amazing thing is that we have seen, in rapid-fire succession, a political meltdown in the Middle East, the world's second largest economy being hit by a ten-meter wall of water, crude oil prices soaring out of control, a tanking U.S. dollar, a major debt crisis in Europe with a far more dangerous one brewing in the U.S. causing S&P to downgrade the U.S. credit outlook -- and yet the markets continue to sail along, oblivious to it all. THAT is the weird thing. What will it take for it to unwind? For how long can the continued provision of liquidity by central banks and deficit-governments continue to delay the day of reckoning?