Well, now, sports fans. Ready to place a few bets on the Russyan rouble and its slide into the financial toilet? Seems like the Bank of Russya will have to spend some reserves to shore up that old fiat paper that blows in the winds that howl across the steppes in the east. We know the oil price slide has depressed the Russyan economic outlook in recent months/years. And now we have China playing havoc with world markets. The slowing Chinese economy got hammered last week as the Central Chinese government intervened in the domestic stock market to halt a huge sell off of equities. One tactic involved the prohibition of short selling of major stocks. Another suspended trading of widely held stocks in critical sectors(banking, etc.). These moves are contrary to accepted market driven pricing, but has little affect on Communist central planning and market manipulation. In addition, the Chinese have allowed the yuan to devalue as much as 1.9% today, which is deflationary, and could have an effect on world exports to China and will definitely tilt some trade away from Chinese shores.
All of this is more bad news for the Kremlin and "Vova" in particular. While rattling around during his summer holiday, he's been conferring with his ex-KGB cronies trying to figure out what to do next to aggravate the USA. Obama refuses to play his game and remains cordial if not friendly with the St. Petersburg gnome. Obama has lots on his plate internationally while the Kremlin fritters away opportunities by getting bogged down in Ukraine.
But, summer is not over and there is still time for Russya to make up ground in its economy. Perhaps the Kremlin will start selling off some of its real estate, given that it is the largest country in the world and has the lowest density of any 1st world country.
But, if the Kremlin can't stop the rouble's slide, then all bets are off, and it's back to square one for the oligarch's economic outlook.
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