Can the Russian economy aborb the trade goods once destined for America?
No, but then neither can America. Remember that China started loaning us money so we could buy their goods with it, probably thinking they could keep our recession from hitting them too hard if they help us and/or make their own numbers looks better internally - like our Dollar swaps are keeping Europe afloat - a QE via incestuous central bank lends to each other. But now everyone is caught in the same production death spiral.
China does have the population to become consumers, but for that they need a middle class - and they have been allowing that- to a point. But the development of a middle class also will come with political problems for them..
Can the American's find cheap goods elsewhere or are high-cost goods in their future?
Americans devalued their own labor. Since the dollar largely represents the value each America produces, prints a whole bunch of them results in their labor purchasing less from overseas. High/Low costs are relative terms - relative mostly to what an average american earns. Our govt is obviously as hell bent on destroying our middle class as china seems to be on fostering one. Obamacare and other regulation are ensuring that wages stay stagnant while input costs such as fuel are increasing - along with the inflation stealing money from bank accounts and jacking prices.
We will tell out Grandchildren about the "before-time" when everyone had two cars and could afford to fuel them.
Who is going to be dancing with who?
As long as America isn't on your dance card, you will be doing better. China is going to domainate on the pacific rim, BRICS Indonesia, japan
Russia will dominate Western Europe, and possibly Middle East OPEC nations, and they will share influence in India and Africa. They probably won't dance a lot with each other except as a tactical exercise in removing the US.
What will happen in the PM markets?
That is a real "it depends" question. And it mostly depends on if there is a world war. Assuming there isn't..and an orderly transition is achieved, China and Russia will eventually announce a return to Gold- or at least a commodities based basket which contains it. Either independently or jointly ( like a SDR) It might even be a SDR if those powers feel they can sufficiently control the world bank. If such currencies exist PM prices will become directly linked to those currencies ( as those currencies will either be fully or partially remediable directly for that basket of commodities) and the US dollar price for PM will fluctuate against that new basket currency...
Will all currencies be exposed as worthless?
A Currency by definition can't be worthless without no longer being a currency. As long as someone still accepts in trade, it has value.
However it is very likely that all currencies will be considered worth less, and sometimes much much less, compared to the new currency used in world trading.Even with the Stupid number of zeros on a Zimbabwe note, people there still accept them, but foreigners would laugh if you tired to pay them that way...
I don't think people fully understand the impacts of going down any road that severs the order of things...even if the order of things is screwed up, flawed and destined for failure...
I think the powers that be (Russia and China mostly) understand completely the ramifications of severing the old world order - especially if the new isn't up and running and functional. That is why China still buys US Treasuries occasionally ( if they hold them afterwards is a different matter) and why Putin or China hasn't just gone ahead an dumped what they have on the open market in an act of (economic ) war. They are obviously getting their ducks in a row so there is a second, easily accessible, system of trade, under their direct control, so that when the dollar goes they are impacted LESS. The loss of the American, European and Japanese markets ( since they are all tied directly to the dollar at this point) will cause a world wide depression that will affect everyone. But the prize here is being in charge of the new system that is adopted when trade begins to recover. Life gave us all lemons... so they are getting the juicer and other ingredients out and ready so they are the first with lemonade to sell.