Lil FYI

 

I think I remember somebody saying that "the world needs their oil/gas and minerals" worse than it's gonna care about poor Ukraine. Yup...sure do.

Despite Western sanctions, Russian ruble and banks are recovering

"Lucrative oil and gas exports, and strict currency controls, are behind the stabilization"

"Some of the recovery is artificial, made possible by strict limits that the central bank, the Bank of Russia, has placed on currency exchange, withdrawals and hard-currency transfers overseas. But it is also due to a very real factor still working in Russia’s favor: strong oil and gas exports that bring a flood of hard currency into the country."

“I think the key signal is that, for now, it appears the Bank of Russia managed to avoid a deep financial crisis,” said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, an association of banks and finance companies."

"Furthermore, Russia is continuing to enjoy large [foreign currency] inflows as it is still selling commodities,” Ribakova said."

A"t the moment, only one of Russia’s five largest banks, VTB, has been cut off from SWIFT and subjected to full blocking sanctions, said Fishman, who is now adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University."

“There was sort of a big bang of sanctions in the first 10 days of Putin’s declaration of war … but I think pressure has leveled off in the last few weeks,” he said."