All of this bring tidings of great joy to the global gambler that discovered Russia early this year.

Within the universe of big exchange traded funds, Van Eck Global's Market Vectors Russia (RSX) ETF is up 28.78% year-to-date, beating China's A-shares and H-shares; basket case Brazil; emerging market darling India; the MSCI Emerging Markets Index; the S&P 500; the SPDR Gold ETF and even oil. Putin haters are going to hate this. Maybe the Kremlin spooks are manipulating the markets. Or maybe someone planted a chip in Rogers' head and got him to say this crazy talk:

"I'm very optimistic about the future of Russia," Rogers said during BCS investor conference in Moscow on Monday. "Certainly one of the most attractive stock markets in the world these days for me is Russia." Reuters quoted him saying this, not RT or Sputnik International.

Of course, Russia is no easy task and may be best managed from far, far away.