Too-big-to-fail banks is a rational compromise. Some Russians might still remember the failure of Sberbank in 90ths which was a disaster for millions of families (it was the only place to have savings account). You probably cannot imagine what a hell it will be if something like AIG or BoA would allow to fail. At least no government or rich elite could survive such kind of event which very probably will trigger a new period of forceful and bloody wealth redistribution (which is what all revolutions is all about). So govt choices to print its way out of being overthrown.

What Iceland did is subtly different. It lets foreign banks to fail, to bear the consequences of their own risky and stupid investments, and refused to tax its own people to cover foreign bankers loses.

Russians do even "better", they just says to its own folks "sorry, your money is gone" (what can you do?). Sometimes they bother to invent excuses for foreign investors, such as "tax returns" or "market cobditions", but that's very uncommon event. Usually your money just gone and people who did it are "clever guys".)

Notice also how gun ownership indirectly restricts a corrupted government from just plainly robbing it's citizens and promt it to invent some more complicated, less efficient, slow schemes.)

So, nothing to see here.