The Russian ruble instantly crashed some 20% earlier today before their central bank intervened, with it still down 10%.
Rub spiked to 90 per dollar from 74 last week, currently trading at 85, and crossed 100 per euro from 85, with it currently trading at 94.
That’s before the bazooka of sanctions is specified with EU’s Ursula von der Leyen stating: “We will weaken Russia’s economic base and its capacity to modernize.”
Russians in Moscow can no longer exchange their currencies for dollars or euros as Vladimir Putin, the invading Russian president, is to hold a meeting with CEOs of major Russian companies.
Banks and ATMs in Moscow are no longer giving out euros or dollars, Moscow Times correspondents reported. Currency exchanges have also stopped trading rubles for dollars and euros as the Russian currency spirals.
There are reports queues at banks and currency exchange points are forming in Moscow where there’s an increased police presence in the streets.
Residents of the Russian capital woke today in shock, horror and bewilderment. They have been told for weeks that Russia has no intention to invade Ukraine and they, as well as much of the world, believed it.
As Russian tanks roll on Ukrainian streets however, and as planes bomb Ukrainian cities, war in Europe has began.
“Whether we like it or not Putin has effectively declared war on the West,” said David Davis, the former Brexit secretary.
While the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it a “hideous and barbaric venture of Putin which must end in failure.”
The Ukrainian president has ordered his army to inflict maximum damage on the aggressor. Russia is apparently using precision weapons at least so far and further claims they don’t aim to occupy Ukraine, though no one believes a word they say now.
Lithuania has declared a state of emergency and called a Nato meeting under Article 4 as they feel the territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.
Protests are being prepared in Moscow today with polls suggesting half of all Russians do not want a war in Ukraine, a figure that might be higher in Moscow where they might feel the most economic impact as Russian stocks keep falling, down 37% today!
“We, correspondents of the Russian media and experts who write about Russia’s foreign policy, condemn the military operation launched by the Russian Federation in Ukraine.
War has never been and never will be a method of resolving conflicts and there is no justification for it.”
So says a petition signed by 100 Russian journalists and reporters initiated by Kommersant business daily reporter Yelena Chernenko.
While Russian directors, producers and celebrities have posted black squares to Instagram in protest of the war.
“Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom no matter what Moscow thinks,” Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
A wave of refugees might now flood Europe as a peaceful people are murdered in their own land following weeks of denials and denials by Russia about any plan to invade.
The Chinese even went as far as to accuse America of warmongering, while now Russian planes bomb Ukrainians cities.
Markets will be waiting to see whether the sanctions amount to effectively cutting Russia off as Russia has gone further than most thought they would realistically.
In doing so they’ve made it clear they’re a threat to Europe and to peace, and so it may well be on the cards to order companies, as well as perhaps even citizens, to leave Russia.
No one has yet specified what the sanctions are however, but the situation can not be any more serious short of all out war.
Source: https://www.trustnodes.com/2022/02/24/russian-ruble-plunges-panic-in-moscow