AP Photo

Since the global financial crisis began in 2008, the Kennan Institute has organized several lectures exploring the impact of the crisis on Eurasian countries. In the years leading up to the crisis, many of these nations, particularly Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, had experienced strong economic growth largely based on cheap international credit and high prices for the natural resources and commodities they exported.

When the economic crisis first hit the United States and other Western nations, many in Eurasia thought they would be immune, or “decoupled,” from the effects of what appeared to be a Western housing bubble collapse. However, the crisis soon triggered a rapid decline in international prices for the commodities produced by these nations, from oil...