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The Russian Ruble Is Collapsing. Here’s What To Know
With apologies to all the... I don't know, ruble fans (?) out there, the Russian currency is of no consequence.
It wasn't much in the first place, but now, in the wake of the Ukraine fiasco, it's just a promissory note backed by Vladimir Putin's commodities, which are contraband. In that sense, the ruble may as well be scrip issued by a drug cartel. As EM veteran Paul McNamara told Bloomberg's Odd Lots program earlier this year, "the ruble's no use to anyone."
Given that, you can't blame "anyo
No good deed goes unpunished, especially when doing the deeds of a punisher.
The CBR might not want to fund a current account deficit from its reserves, but it answers to Putin. I think Putin will cut wages and services to his compliant populace, and extract more revenue from his compliant oligarchs, before he taps the CBR’s reserves. I don’t, however, think he will cut back on his war spending to spare those reserves.