That goes without saying. In fact, that's the point I've been making throughout most of this post. Saudi Arabia is manipulating crude oil output and driving the prices down, in order to undermine the emerging competition from fracking companies in North America. They've figured it's better to temporarily sacrifice profit for the sake of removing a potentially dangerous rival while they still have a chance.

Contrary to what most Russian state media might be trying to convince you, this has nothing to do with Russia.