Free Republic

RUSSIA's Economy has started to COLLAPSE as the impact of the Sanctions hit home. Russia's OIL & GAS Revenue is down 69% in the first 9 months of 2023 compared with the revenue Russia was earning prior to the invasion of Ukraine. In addition to this huge reduction in income Expenditure is continuing to increase due to the investment in the War, which means that the Russian Economy is now incurring massive LOSSES. In this video I provide more details of the figures and discuss the problems that Russia is now facing.

The United States and its allies continue to ramp up the economic pressure on Russia following the country's decision to invade Ukraine. Here is a FOX Business roundup of actions taken against Russia thus far.

The pace of growth in the Russian economy fell by almost half last year, fresh economic data released Monday has shown. Russia’s GDP grew by 1.3% in 2019, the Russian state statistics agency, Rosstat said. That compares with an official expansion rate of 2.5% recorded in 2018, and is the weakest annual growth since Russia emerged from economic crisis in 2016. Despite the slow-down, the economy did pick up in the final half of the year, managing to beat pessimistic forecasts from organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that had suggested Russia would struggle to...

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa seem to be failing to justify predictions of 21st century domination ___ The political crisis in Brazil over economic mismanagement and high-level corruption, likely to come to a head next week, has reinforced the fashionable view, popular among western governments and businesses, that the Brics bubble has burst. Members of the exclusive Brics club of leading developing countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are failing to justify predictions that, separately and together, they will dominate the 21st century world, or so the argument goes. The Brics concept, plus acronym,...

Vladimir Putin is falling back on Soviet-era self-reliance as oil wealth evaporates and sanctions cut off vitally-needed technology Russia is running out of money. President Vladimir Putin is taking a strategic gamble, depleting the Kremlin's last reserve funds to cover the budget and to pay for an escalating war in Syria at the same time. The three big rating agencies have all issued alerts over recent days, warning that the country's public finances are deteriorating fast and furiously. There is no prospect of an oil revival as long as Saudi Arabia continues to flood the market. Russia cannot borrow abroad...

A columnist for Russia's Vedomosti newspaper, a joint venture between the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, has advised readers to pull their savings out of banks and convert them into physical dollars. The ruble has tanked over the past year, falling over 50% from 33 rubles to the dollar to 67 rubles at market open Friday. The collapse in the currency's value has helped drive up prices in the country, which is heavily reliant on imports, with inflation surging to 15% in January. Now, it seems, it is affecting sentiment on the streets. Andrey Panov, a freelance columnist...

Food prices are out of control in Russia. So now, Russian officials are even thinking about putting a price cap on "essential food products," reports the Moscow Times. "We will see how to efficiently place [the restrictions] into law," the deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich said. He also added that the government may give "the state competition watchdog more power in enforcing existing retail market regulations," reports the Moscow Times.

The Telegraph (UK) January 9, 2015 Fitch has downgraded Russia's credit rating and painted a horrific picture of a struggling economy rocked by a collapsing rouble, falling oil prices, high inflation and declining international reserves. The ratings agency cut the country to BBB- from BBB with a negative outlook, meaning further downgrades are possible. But it was the language Fitch used in its reasoning that was most shocking. Russia's economic outlook "has deteriorated significantly" in just six months, Fitch stated. Gross Domestic Product will shrink 4pc this year, the agency added, far worse than the 1.5pc contraction it previously expected....

Russian President Vladimir Putin's excessive military spending is killing Russia's economy. Days before 2015, analysts were already one in warning that Russia would not be able to paddle through 2016-2017. Mr Putin's ostentatious military spending, as well as generous social benefits, dominated Russia's expenditure in 2014. Mr Putin had reportedly spending too much in military even before Russia's annexation of Crimea in March. Thirty-three percent of the country's 13.96 trillion roubles were spent in social benefits while 32.5 percent were spent in defence and security. "Without cutting military spending and raising the pension age, we won't muddle through," an unnamed...

As Zero Hedge first reported today, shortly before noon one (and subsequently more) FX brokers advised clients that any existing Ruble positions would be forcibly closed out because "western banks have stopped pricing USDRUB", over concerns of Russian capital controls. Ironically, it was this forced liquidation of mostly short RUB positions that pushed the RUB higher, which in turn had a briefly favorably impact on energy commodities and risk assets, as the market had by then perceived the Ruble selloff as excessive. Of course, since nothing had actually changed aside from a temporary market technical, the selloff promptly resumed into...

Earlier, we reported that various currency brokers such as FXCM and FxPro, would - as a result of the soaring liquidity in the USDRUB pair - suspend trading in the Russian Ruble (while other merely hiked margins to ridiculous levels). It appears things have escalated again, and as FXCM just reported, instead of just politely advising clients not to open new USDRUB position tomorrow, it has advised anyone long, or short, the USDRUB that their positions will be forcibly shut in moments. So for those curious why there appears to be a collapse in Ruble volatility in the past...

Russia's economy is crashing and its currency appears to be in free fall. The ruble plunged by about 12% Monday, meaning it's lost nearly 50% against the dollar this year. Early Tuesday in Russia, the central bank hiked its key interest rate for a sixth time this year to 17% from 10.5%.

* RTS share index plunges 10 percent to 5-year low * Central bank seen intervening to support rouble * Putin's popularity in part based on stability (Recasts and update prices) MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The rouble plunged almost 10 percent against the dollar on Monday, its sharpest fall since 1998, and Russian assets sold off across markets, testing the firepower of the central bank and posing a major challenge for President Vladimir Putin. Traders said the slump in the rouble, down 49 percent against the dollar this year, forced the central bank to intervene in the market on Monday...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Russia's suddenly escalating financial crisis risks spilling beyond its borders and endangering parts of the global economy. With economies in Europe, Japan, China and Latin America already ailing, fresh threats have emerged from Russia's shriveled currency, its move to dramatically boost interest rates, the damage from plummeting oil prices and Western sanctions over Russia's action in Ukraine. The alarming 10 percent drop in the ruble over the past two days has amplified the economic turmoil in Russia. Investors fear that Russia may default on its foreign debt obligations - a move that would inflict hundreds of billions...

MOSCOW — Deep into the worst conflict between Russia and the West since the Cold War, investors are fleeing, food prices are soaring and there are rumbles from Russia’s Westernized business elite that the nation needs to avoid repeating the economic mismanagement that broke apart the Soviet Union. Western sanctions have choked off financing to some of Russia’s economic juggernauts and denied crucial technology to the nation’s energy sector. But there is little evidence that the mounting economic pressures since the March annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula will soften Putin’s policies toward Ukraine and other nations in the former Soviet...

Dutch authorities have officially declared that their country was ready to accept all Russian gays and lesbians who are allegedly suffering at home. All of them were promised political refugees the status. However, many observers believe that Amsterdam needs to slow down with such initiatives as they will not do the country any good. Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said that given the plight of gays and lesbians in Russia, the Dutch government was ready to grant them political asylum. On Tuesday Frans Timmermans sent a letter to the parliament where he again condemned the Russian law banning the propaganda...

NATO and Russia announced Wednesday that they have achieved the ability to target and locate bombs planted in large crowds, such as commuter hubs and sporting events. The Stand-off Detection of Explosives and Suicide Bombers system (STANDEX) "could help NATO allies and Russia prevent terrorist attacks such as those carried out on the public transport systems in London, Madrid and Moscow" in the past decade, NATO said in a video news release that included Russian partners. The project took four years and 4.8 million euros (US$6.6 million) of investment, paid for by NATO, Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Turkey, and the...

CHITA, October 31 (RIA Novosti) – A plane with US military inspectors, heading to an airport in Russia’s southern Siberia under the international Open Skies treaty, had to divert to another location because of bad weather on Thursday, a police source said. The Open Skies Treaty, which entered into force on January 1, 2002, established a regime of unarmed aerial observation flights over the territories of its 34 member states to promote openness and transparency of military forces and activities. Russia ratified the treaty in May 2001. The plane with military inspectors, performing an observation flight above Russia in line...

MOSCOW, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russia has held snap drills of nuclear strategic forces, anti-missile and anti-aircraft defense systems, navy and strategic aviation, the Kremlin said Wednesday. "The launches of ballistic missiles have been carried out, the anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems have been employed, " Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Space forces and the navy have also participated in the drills, which completed successfully with all training targets hit, he said. The drills were conducted under the direct command of President Vladimir Putin, he added. This year, Putin has introduced a practice of unexpected inspections of the armed...

MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) – Russian authorities have filed hooliganism charges against at least five more Greenpeace activists detained last month during a protest at a state-owned oil rig in Arctic waters, the environmental organization said. Greenpeace said on its Twitter account that Anthony Perrett of the UK and Russian freelance photographer Denis Sinyakov have been “presented with hooliganism charges by Russia's Investigative Committee.” Earlier in the day, Greenpeace spokeswoman Maria Favorskaya said the same charges had been brought against Argentinean nationals Miguel Hernan Perez and Camilla Speziale and Colin Russell of Australia. A dozen other activists have been...