No. It has nothing to do Russia...It's just side effect that the Russian economy is imploding since they along with Venezuela are broke and depend on their oil exports to stay afloat. The cheap gas is being caused by OPEC. With the U.S. and Canada producing large amounts of shale oil, there has been an increase in the global oil supply that has been exaggerated by a decrease in demand. 

The shale companies need oil to stay above $65 a barrel in order to make a respectable return on investment.  OPEC knows this and has refused to reduce their output in order to drive the price down and slow down the shale oil companies. There plan has already began to work. Oil is currently in the area of $58 barrel and investment in new shale oil production has slowed. It will take at least 6 months before the market will reflect this but oil prices will begin to rise in late 2015/early 2016. 

No. It has nothing to do Russia...It's just side effect that the Russian economy is imploding since they along with Venezuela are broke and depend on their oil exports to stay afloat. The cheap gas is being caused by OPEC. With the U.S. and Canada producing large amounts of shale oil, there has been an increase in the global oil supply that has been exaggerated by a decrease in demand. 

The shale companies need oil to stay above $65 a barrel in order to make a respectable return on investment.  OPEC knows this and has refused to reduce their output in order to drive the price down and slow down the shale oil companies. There plan has already began to work. Oil is currently in the area of $58 barrel and investment in new shale oil production has slowed. It will take at least 6 months before the market will reflect this but oil prices will begin to rise in late 2015/early 2016. 

It's not really OPEC but Saudi Arabria that decided to do this. They wanted to hurt two of their competitors, Canada and Mexico who are interesting enough part of OPEC, who had started to take some business away from them; and from the looks at some of the responses it is working. And goes to show that the market is basically in the hands of one country. They are sitting on the biggest oil reserve is the reason why they are in "control".

Though I have heard some idiot praise Obama for this, though it does have some ecconomic pluses it needs to stay at this price for a while until the "ripple" effects can be felt. It took about a year when they oil started to go up before logistics started to really adjust their prices and suppliers for my company follow after that.