As much as it's fun to watch British TV pundits (and UR) orgasm from the sheer shadenfreude of expecting Russia to disintegrate, Putin to get cast out and the new Russian leader to incessantly fellate the economical and political penises of the western countries, I think the media here seriously overestimates both the "panic" in Russia and it's economical problems.
As Sheb has correctly mentioned, the majority of Russia's government's spending is in roubles, so falling oil prices are not that horrible, really. The Kremlin still gets the same number of roubles per barrel, and since it pays its expenses mostly in roubles as well, its intra-country budget is not hit as hard as many people in the west think.
As for the panic, there's is none whatsoever even in the economical circles, as the people who lived through to 90s are still alive and confident that this crisis won't be hearly that bad. Most commonly, comparisons are made with the 2008's recession.
Let's take pensions as an example: Sure, with a falling rouble the government's spending on pensions will go down - but very soon they'll have to raise the nominal pensions so that the current real pensions are not too far below the old ones. The savings from devaluation are very much temporary.
Could you elaborate here a bit, Helgo?