The recent high-level arrests may have had to do with the Saudi move. There were also rumors of the king being on his deathbed but nothing more on that.
And Russia's economic direction since the second half of the last decade has some parallels with the late Weimar Republic's handling of its debt once it couldn't find credit and the world was in Depression. It used harsh austerity to drive down demand, lowering imports and thus creating a foreign exchange surplus to build up reserves/pay debt. But Weimar's political environment, with a power vacuum and uncontrolled mass extremist movements wielding paramilitaries, meant that the popular discontent it generated brought down the whole system. Putin has a simpler crisis, internally and externally, is clearly in command and has repressive power, so he can be more confident in his position.

I'm Brazilbernd on .net. Guess we are all Dutch now.