The Russian economy (catch all)

[Firn]

Even Without Sanctions, Russia's Economy Is Looking Sicklier Than Ever

“What we’re seeing now is a pretty permanent exodus from Russia, and it will be very difficult for the Russian central bank to fight it,” Lars Christensen, chief emerging-markets analyst at Danske Bank in Copenhagen, tells Bloomberg News. “The central bank is very much between a rock and a hard place. They frankly seem quite desperate in their actions.”

I wrote earlier that Russia might be forced to raise again it's interest rate and last week it did so. Higher inflation and (unofficially) pressure on it's foreign reserves are the two reasons. The RCB finds itself indeed between a rock and hard place and has to hurt demand and growth due to Putin's primacy of politics...

The Ruble has fallen quite a lot in the last year due to the economic woes in Russia and the strenght of the Euro and Dollar in the last years. It's large losses in the last months after Putins military adventures are especially impressive if one takes into account the 40+ bn USD spent on market interventions and the 200+ base points hike relative to the actions of the FED and ECB.