The ruble has recouped most of its losses and become the top-performing currency globally. It continues to gain and is up 6% against the U.S. dollar from its lows in the first week of March.
The ruble appreciated to 83 to the dollar intraday on Tuesday against a record low of 139 on March 7.
Thanks to the recent rally, the ruble is only about 10% lower than what it was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The ruble was trading at around 76 before the invasion, according to the data from Bloomberg.
Hilarious. I remember reading stories about how the Ruble losing x% value, meant that BAD MAN Putin was on his last legs and the Russian economy was minutes, if not seconds, away from total collapse. And now it’s back to within 10% of the original price, relative to the US Dollar.
The above chart is from a few days ago, and it shows a steep drop in value, close to half, and then a just as steep appreciation. If it was current, you’d see the new peak being just as high as the old peak.
The Russian ruble by Wednesday had bounced back from the fall it took after the U.S. and European allies moved to bury the Russian economy under thousands of new sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has resorted to extreme financial measures to blunt the West’s penalties and inflate his currency.
While the West has imposed unprecedented levels of sanctions against the Russian economy, Russia’s Central Bank has jacked up interest rates to 20% and the Kremlin has imposed strict capital controls on those wishing to exchange their rubles for dollars or euros.
No it’s more like he just forced countries that buy Russian oil to pay for it in Rubles. Higher interest rates and capital controls are secondary to forcing countries to buy billions of dollars worth of Rubles every day.
Luckily, our totally not delusional and totally living in reality Privileged Class has made some statements on this that have aged like fine wine.
President Joe Biden promoted the success of the sanctions — some of the toughest ever imposed on a nation — while he was in Poland last week. “The ruble almost is immediately reduced to rubble,” Biden said.
Yeah, you show ’em Joey. Let’s take a look at that graph again.
Ruble Status: Rubble.
Putin Status: Owned.
They’ve been telling us that Putin is three days away from losing his grip on power in Russia for the past two decades, but this time it’s real. This time he’s really just about to be ousted by the Oligarchs he appears to have under lock and key. Any minute now.
But Russia’s oil and gas exports have continued to Europe as well as to China and India. Those exports have acted as an economic floor for the Russian economy, which is dominated by the energy sector. In the European Union, a dependence on Russian gas for electricity and heating has made it significantly more difficult to turn off the spigot, which the Biden administration did when it banned the relatively small amount of petroleum that the U.S. imports from Russia.
I’ve been impressed with Putin and his handling of this situation. And I’ve certainly been impressed with the memes on the Censor Me Daddy Telegram Channel, even if many of them are written in Russian.
Look, Russia has the rest of the world, but especially the EU, by the balls. This ludicrous propaganda about how you can just sanction the country that sells you the raw materials you need for your economy is just that, ludicrous.
“The ruble’s rebound would seem to indicate that U.S. sanctions haven’t effectively crippled Russia’s economy, which is the price Putin should have to pay for his war,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.
“To give Ukraine a fighting chance, the U.S. must sever Putin’s revenue stream by cutting off Russian oil and gas sales globally,” Toomey said in an email to The Associated Press.
Pat Toomey. R-Pa.
Okay Toomey, you faggot, how exactly is that supposed to work, huh? Are we just going to be establishing a no-ship zone against the Russian blue water navy? The sheer delusion of our privileged class simply beggars belief.
But that’s a tougher ask for other European countries such as Germany, which depend on Russia for vital natural gas and oil. The EU overall gets 10% of its oil from Russia and more than one-third of its natural gas.
Many of those countries have pledged to wean themselves off that dependence — but not immediately.
If European nations did move more quickly off Russian petroleum, wrote analyst Charles Lichfield of the Atlantic Council, “a more comprehensive embargo from Europe would threaten Russia’s current account surplus — suddenly making it more difficult to pay public-sector salaries and wage war.”
He noted that “such an outcome may be beyond the reach of Western consensus.”
It also may be beyond the reach of material reality. Countries don’t trade with Russia for Natural Gas and oil because they just love trading with Russia. They trade with them because they, you know, HAVE THE FUCKING OIL AND NATURAL GAS. Like, I really don’t know how to explain this any simpler to these idiots. Natural resources are not spread evenly throughout the entire earth, and any country could become a Saudi-Arabian sized oil producer per capita. That’s just not how reality works.
I’m starting to question the competence of our Privileged Class. It’s possible they actually believe their own bullshit, but the audience is after all Oven-Middle Class Dipshits. I can believe that they are cynically manipulating them, but I’m not sure what their goal is here. They’re setting these catladies up for a real letdown.
