Russia Is Toast

The concept of BRICs nations (Brazil, Russia, India China) as an investment theme has been a mind-blowing success, both for the investors who initially followed the idea when it was created in 2001, and for the man who created it -- Goldman Sach's Jim O'Neill.

But let's face it, there's clearly always been an oddball in the grouping -- Russia.

Maybe things looked a lot different back in 2001, but today, it's clear that Russia isn't the BRIC we hoped it could be.

The population is literally dying off, the country's political development is going backwards, and in the end any success we've seen from the nation has been nothing more than Russia riding the wave of high energy prices.

So Goldman, it's time to kick Russia out of the BRICs. Then add two of the MAVINS, Australia and South Africa, to create the new 'BASICs'.