Russia's 'era of excess' ending with fallen ruble: Peter Pomerantsev

Russia seems to be in for a bout of economic free-fall at the moment, thanks to tumbling oil prices and a severely battered ruble.

Those who lived through the economic hardships of the 1990s might agree, but Russia's monied class must be wondering whether the era of excess, propelled by huge oil revenues, are winding down.

That period has better no better chronicler than Peter Pomerantsev, a British writer whose parents emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

He returned to Russia in recent years to work as a reality television producer, and to make entertainment programs like "How to Marry a Millionaire" that were Western in style, but avoided politics.

In his new book Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of The New Russia, Pomerantsev explores the cynical, brutal, and dazzling world of the nouveau riche.

The Russians were the new jet set," he writes, "they were the richest, the most energetic, the most dangerous. They had the most oil, the most beautiful women, the best parties."