Bitcoin fell to $39,600 before bouncing to $40,500 with it down again to $39,800 while tensions in Ukraine keep escalating with the Russian controlled Luhansk and Donetsk now being evacuated by Russian backed forces as buses reportedly line up according to Russian media (pictured in Donetsk).
“In order to prevent casualties among the civilian population, I call on residents of the republic who do not have mobilization orders, and who are not involved in the life support of social and civilian infrastructure, to leave for the territory of the Russian Federation as soon as possible,” said Leonid Pasechnik, head of the “People’s Republic” in Luhansk.
The order comes following reports of increased breaches of the ceasefire with shelling continuing after a kindergarten was hit in government controlled areas of Ukraine.
Now Russian media reports that Russian backed forces in Donetsk foiled a sabotage plan to blow up chlorine facilities, with the saboteurs allegedly Polish.
“Shortly before the clash, we intercepted the conversations of saboteurs in Polish. Earlier, we already reported on the participation of Polish mercenaries on the side of Ukrainian militants,” Russian backed forces said.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is reportedly to take charge of the exercises tomorrow which now involve 200,000 troops by some estimates. He will be joined by Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko.
“These military exercises were purely defensive and are not a threat to any other country. They were planned and all the objectives of these drills have been achieved,” Putin said.
In other news, Russia’s central bank has put forward a draft law to ban the issuance of crypto as well as its acceptance for payments or the ability to hold it for companies, according to Russian media.
Such laws have previously been proposed now and then by the Russian central bank with Putin usually shutting them down, but this comes just a day after Ukraine passed a law legalizing crypto in the country.
The Russian stock index, RTS, has lost another 3.5% today after dropping 5% on Thursday with European stocks down 0.65% while Nasdaq is down 0.4%.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has reiterated at the Munich Security Conference that Nord Stream 2 won’t go ahead if Russia further invades, but in a conference of his own Putin dismissed sanctions, claiming that US would always find a reason to impose financial penalties on his regime.
All of which means we’re potentially hours from war with the Russian backed forces in Donbas clearly escalating matters to the max as they evacuate.
The exercises are coming to an end, so they go in or they go off at this point and rather than de-escalation, we’re seeing very much the opposite.
From the action today, if it comes to anything, it appears the show would be in Russian markets mostly with European and US markets responding less.
An invasion during the weekend would mean these markets won’t be able to respond instantly, reducing the risk of rumors causing a complete crash in Russian stocks.
That means we would know what the sanctions are during the weekend as well, allowing Russia to downplay them potentially.
Yet if he does go in during the weekend, the Monday opening will be quite something especially for Russian markets.
With no stocks opened during the weekend, bitcoin might just sideway and wait instead of insta responding as the big money won’t be able to play.
There is no certainty he will invade however, but if he does, it would be in the next few hours prior to Monday, perhaps as soon as this evening once markets close, or never at least for this session.
At that point, if he does go in, we’ll find out what the real response will be by the many actors in Europe, from London to Ankara, with the British administration just this Thursday signing a Trilateral between UK, Poland and Ukraine.
If he does go in we’ll also find out what the response will be of the Russian people. They’ve failed to show solidarity with Ukraine so far in public protests or marches to call for no war. History will note it.
Source: https://www.trustnodes.com/2022/02/18/bitcoin-drops-below-40000-as-russian-backed-forces-order-evacuation