Russia begins moving troops into eastern Ukraine

[Dill]

(02-24-2022, 10:25 PM)GMDino Wrote: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/investing/ruble-russian-stocks-crash/index.html

The Moscow stock exchange had suspended trading earlier on Thursday but when dealing resumed, stocks went into free-fall.

The MOEX index plunged as much as 45% before recovering slightly to close down 33%, while the RTS index — which is denominated in dollars — ended the day with losses of 39%. The crash wiped about $70 billion off the value of Russia's biggest companies.

Russian banks and oil companies were among the hardest hit in volatile trading, with shares in Sberbank (SBRCY) — Russia's largest lender — losing 43% of their value. Rosneft, in which BP (BP) owns a 19.75% stake, also shed 43%. BP shares dropped 4.6% in London. Gazprom (GZPFY), the giant gas company behind the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, was down 35%.

The question now is whether and how fast this kind of thing will drive up internal opposition to the war within Russia. 

Playing and re-playing Tucker Carlson on Russian TV won't sway many minds on the rightness of the Russian cause if their financial system seriously constricts.

Russia has been preparing for sanctions for years. Still, I'm thinking the invasion was a miscalculation. Russia's little economy, the biggest to be hit with international sanctions, will struggle over the long hall. Perhaps P hopes he can quickly instal a puppet regime, get out, and the sanctions will drop? 

Maintaining them over the long run will be VERY hard on Russia, but unfortunately also on many of our allies with trade with Russia.