This Telegraph article is based on the notion that none of the Eastern European and Asian economies are viable and will all default. Russian companies have taken out over $440 billion US in loans from western banks, this includes over $60 billion by Gazprom. Gazprom will not default on its debts and neither will the other companies that are servicing the Russian domestic market (real estate may have collapsed in the west but not in Russia, where mortgages are a novelty and the baseline demand is high due to inadequate existing stock). Unlike 1998, the Russian currency is not propped up with a pyramid scheme of government bonds and interest rates in the 150% range so there will be no repeat of the previous default scenario where the exchange rate went up by a factor of 10 in a few months as the pyramid collapsed. The easy borrowing days for Russian companies are over for now, but since the economy is not saturated in terms of development and not a debt driven bubble this is not going to translate into a collapse of domestic demand. I think the same thing applies to China in spite of its greater exposure via its highly developed export market (which Russia does not have).