This Ukraine conflict is perfect example of Arab Soft Power, Aviation and Economic system and you think you can understand things from just public press releases about Saudi economic system. What does Trump say about MBS?Oil price drop at that were just a short time due to economic crisis which the price were quickly recovered and those petrol state can use accumulated funds during the boom. Can't compared with nowadays that oil price trend is downward spiral which will depleted fund without new money in. Remember that Saudis oil is 60% and 40% of non oil revenue is still related to oil industry or investment from oil money.
tourism won't be enough to replace oil as Saudi Arabia have far more population than UAE.
Also ask you again, which minerals Saudis exclusively have but not others? Especially china.
you are mistaken any country can be compared to Saudi (I already posted link in this thread). France learnt it hard way in Africa and Iran is continuously learning the lesson but since they lack the foresight and not enough humiliated in public they are not coming to correct conclusion. Just to give you scientific answer.
There are only two modern continuous scientific Civilization The Jews and Russian. and both have problems. Putin has recognized it much earlier thats why he connects this Petro Dollar, Science and responsibility of Muslims. he does not want science hostage to that other religion. and Putin is polite enough not to say it directly. All the internal comparative metrics are done with Muslims and its based on that extra Muslim population Russia is asking Saudi to invest in Far East as they will get engaged there. Russia has comprehensive understanding of Islam and Gulf Royals much beyond any country.
.November 5, 2015, 10:16 AM
Speaking about the importance of import substitution, Vladimir Putin noted, in particular: "What we could easily buy with so-called petrodollars yesterday, today we're thinking about how to produce ourselves. And to do this, we need to engage in fundamental science, applied science, and high-tech production. We will do all of this. Naturally, with the active support of all our citizens. In fact, I sense this sentiment, and what you just said about this, about the sentiment of Dagestan, is very important."
Sobyanin: The number of large families in Moscow has doubled.
We've looked at New York, London, Paris, Singapore—another Eastern city—and a number of other cities. And everywhere, the total fertility rate is falling. Falling very rapidly. But in Moscow, it's not falling, it's rising. Moscow is currently above average in this indicator, ranking 30th in Russia. Although people think we're somewhere in the bottom five or three, or even topping the list," Sobyanin said.
According to him, the Caucasian republics, which are famous for their large families, and the northern regions are ahead of Moscow in this indicator.