MOSCOW: The stock market here has swooned so often in recent weeks that regulators have repeatedly shut it down, as if Russia, which aspires to be a financial powerhouse, has become just another bumbling backwater. The oligarchs, those Kremlin-connected magnates who once dazzled the world with their riches, are reeling. And Vladimir Putin is facing a threat to his legacy of bringing growth, stability and a renewed swagger to this nation.

The global financial crisis has not spared Russia, wiping out roughly a trillion dollars in wealth and forcing the government to adopt a broad rescue plan to shore up banks. At stake is the country's robust economy over much of the last decade, which has for the first time given many Russians a taste of comforts long enjoyed in the West.

For now, the damage has been largely limited to the Russian elite. While Russia's stock market has plummeted by about two-thirds since May, more than those in the United States and Western Europe, the country has not yet developed a broad investor class, and most people have not squirreled away their savings in the market.