Russian Ruble collapses

[TooTall]

No I didn't, but I am still waiting for the rest of the story about slaves building the "entire capitalist terror state."

Me too.
When did I claim slavery built the "entire capitalist terror state?"

That would be on post #26 and I quote: "While you're a useful idiot living in a capitalist terror state built on the backs of African slaves."

 

[georgephillip]

That would be on post #26 and I quote: "While you're a useful idiot living in a capitalist terror state built on the backs of African slaves."

"A capitalist terror state built on the backs of African slaves" doesn't have the same meaning as "slaves building the entire capitalist terror state." The genocide of native Americans also contributed to the problem of US terrorism.

 

[Treeshepherd]

China is a powder keg waiting for a match. Too many people, too much pollution, too much corruption, too little education , no sense of ethics and too many bubbles created artificially by central planning.

Their income per capita is $6,900, compared to $10,000 for a Mexican. And they can't hold that wage down, which will ultimately make them less appealing as a sweat shop venue. Manufacturing will ultimately go elsewhere. And that includes more US companies building stuff in the USA, which has downward pressure on wages and the cheapest energy.

A lot of the world is going down in flames, but not Russia and not the US.

The world gets catastrophic pneumonia and we get a cold. That's okay, a cold is quickly shed. Russians get the flu and they don't even notice because they're too drunk or hungover, and Putin rolls on.

I'd bet on China before I'd bet on Russia.

Russia should be a lot more than just the petro-kleptocracy that it has become.

The really worrying financial crisis is happening in China not Greece - Telegraph

 

[auditor0007]

Putin's aggression and the oil price plunge are taking their toll.

"It has now fallen close to 20 percent this week, taking its losses this year against the dollar to more than 50 percent and stirring memories of the 1998 crisis when the currency collapsed within a matter of days, forcing Russia to default on its debt.

"Although Russia's public finances and reserves are much healthier than in 1998, analysts say the country is on the brink of a full-blown currency crisis.

"At 10:10 a.m. ET, the ruble was down around 11 percent against the dollar at 72.80 RUBUTSTN=MCX after earlier racing past 80 roubles per dollar for the first time to be down around 20 percent at one stage from the previous close."

The Russian gangster state going belly up?

Russian ruble suffers steepest drop in 16 years Reuters

But hey, that Putin is really sticking it to Obama, isn't he? Putin may not survive this politically or physically. There is always the chance that he could assume room temperature very quickly if things continue to get worse.

 

[Treeshepherd]

"The ruble has been on fire, gaining over 20% against the dollar and 35% against the euro in the last three months.


The currency is among the best performing this year, after being the worst performer of 2014." -April 2015

Ruble fell against the dollar in June, but continued to rise vs the Euro. They're looking to capitalize on the Greek crisis.

 

[auditor0007]

"The ruble has been on fire, gaining over 20% against the dollar and 35% against the euro in the last three months.


The currency is among the best performing this year, after being the worst performer of 2014." -April 2015

Ruble fell against the dollar in June, but continued to rise vs the Euro. They're looking to capitalize on the Greek crisis.

Until Russia gets its economy away from relying so heavily on gas and oil, it is going to be in trouble.

 

[Treeshepherd]

"The ruble has been on fire, gaining over 20% against the dollar and 35% against the euro in the last three months.


The currency is among the best performing this year, after being the worst performer of 2014." -April 2015

Ruble fell against the dollar in June, but continued to rise vs the Euro. They're looking to capitalize on the Greek crisis.

Until Russia gets its economy away from relying so heavily on gas and oil, it is going to be in trouble.

Well, they're currently working out a deal with Greece to build a pipeline to the Med;

Saint Petersburg (AFP) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who is locked in bitter bailout negotiations with the EU and IMF, sealed an agreement to build a pipeline with sanctions-hit Russia Friday in a deal likely to irritate European leaders.

The deal was done on the sidelines of an economic forum in St Petersburg, attended by the embattled Greek premier but shunned by many other Western leaders due to the standoff with Russia over its role in the conflict in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met with Tsipras for over 90 minutes, insisted at the forum that his country was open for business with the West despite the Ukraine crisis.

I argued in this thread 6 months ago that sanctions would force Russia to become more economically self-sufficient, like growing more of their own wheat and building their own credit card systems as two examples. I think that development is ongoing. They're creating a new healthy fast-food chain called "Eating At Home" to replace the 400 McDonald's that their 'health inspectors' continue to close down.
They're finding ways around Western sanctions; they did the long term gas deal with China. They've cut deals with Hungary and in a few Latin American countries.

Rumors of Putin's demise were exaggerated in this thread.

 

[ESay]

Well, they're currently working out a deal with Greece to build a pipeline to the Med;

Actually, they seem to have scrapped this project.
Gazprom is changing again its strategy for developing its gas exports to Europe bypassing Ukraine.
After it despaired of striking a deal with Turkey, the monopoly froze investments in so-called Southern corridor which was supposed to ship gas to Turkish Stream. As the result of it, the capacity of the latter will be diminished twice in the foreseeable future – to 32 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
There are plans that the Nord Stream will be an alternative of the scrapped project. There have been announced lately that the capacity of the former will be increased.
Gazprom’s European partners are confused by such circulation of Gazprom’s plans and they don’t know which plan they have to take into consideration.

There is an article about it, but only in Russian.
article

 

[Stratford57]

Russia could not build "Southern Stream" because Bulgaria did not allow the construction on its territory. Since 2005 (except for Yanuckovitch years of presidency) Ukraine as a "reliable" transit country of Russian gas to Europe had picked a nice habit of stealing Russian gas and blackmailing Russia with the threats to freeze Europe (a few years in a row around New Year Europe was freezing because of that). And such countries like Austria, Serbia and Greece were (and still are) hoping for Russian gas supplies. That's why Russia found an alternative way and made a good deal with Turkey.

 

[Treeshepherd]

Interesting. I don't see anything in English about the Russia-Greek deal being scrapped. They had a signing ceremony in St. Petersburg and everything. Maybe Bulgaria is just acting as a loyal EU member in this fascinating global game of chess.

Russian agitators stirring up trouble in Ukraine are much maligned in the Western press, meanwhile nary a word is whispered about CIA agitators who have been poking around in Ukraine since the 1950's.

Sanctions vs Russia are due to expire this month, perhaps to be extended and perhaps not. Some EU members like Italy have expressed a desire to end the sanctions. The US (and its subcontractor Saudi Arabia) see sanctions as a tool to expand its own trade with Europe.

Meanwhile, Russia in semi-isolation continues to develop its domestic economy.
Self-Sufficient Within a Decade Russia Steps up Anti-Sanctions Measures

 

[ESay]

Interesting. I don't see anything in English about the Russia-Greek deal being scrapped. They had a signing ceremony in St. Petersburg and everything. Maybe Bulgaria is just acting as a loyal EU member in this fascinating global game of chess.

What deal? About gas deliveries? If Russia doesn’t enlarge the Turkish Stream pipeline to the full capacity of 62 bcm per year, then the Greek deal seems to worth not much. Russia has decided to freeze investment in the Turkish Stream. I wrote about it in the post 248.

Sanctions vs Russia are due to expire this month, perhaps to be extended and perhaps not.

Actually, the sanctions have been extended already. This happened in the late June. The sanctions will last at least through 31-st January of 2016.

 

[Stratford57]

QUOTE="Treeshepherd, post: 11787344, member: 51930"]Interesting. I don't see anything in English about the Russia-Greek deal being scrapped. They had a signing ceremony in St. Petersburg and everything. Maybe Bulgaria is just acting as a loyal EU member in this fascinating global game of chess.

Russian agitators stirring up trouble in Ukraine are much maligned in the Western press, meanwhile nary a word is whispered about CIA agitators who have been poking around in Ukraine since the 1950's.[ /QUOTE]


No wonder the current USA rulers don't want their taxpayers to know both sides of the story. They want the taxpayers to pay their taxes silently and to make it easy for the rulers to use the money the way they want without obstacle.

 

[Treeshepherd]

What deal?

This was the deal I was talking about. Has it been cancelled? ;
Greece seals Russia pipeline plan as Putin pledges to work with West - Yahoo News

Actually, the sanctions have been extended already. This happened in the late June. The sanctions will last at least through 31-st January of 2016.

I was not aware of that. Apparently the sanctions were extended without input from EU member countries. It seems that the EU is between a rock and a hard place, needing superseding executive power to act cohesively but ruffling the feathers of democracy advocates in the process.
No Cookies Herald Sun
"However, The Wall Street Journal reported early this month that there was a growing consensus within the bloc to roll over the whole package of economic sanctions, which expire in late July, for six months until the end of January. The consensus flows from a decision taken by EU leaders in March that sanctions pressure on Russia should be linked to the full implementation of February's Minsk ceasefire accord, which is supposed to be completed in December 2015.

Still, for such an important decision, it's unusual that the EU would not set up a broader debate.

Initially, it seemed that EU leaders would take the economic sanctions decision at their summit in Brussels on June 25-26. EU leaders have been involved in all the Russia economic sanctions decisions thus far.

However it now appears likely that the sanctions extension will happen at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on June 22 and without any debate. "

 

[ESay]

This was the deal I was talking about. Has it been cancelled? ;

I haven’t heard about the cancelation of the deal.
But unless I am mistaken, this deal makes sense if the Turkish Stream works in a full capacity that is 62 bcm per year.

I was not aware of that. Apparently the sanctions were extended without input from EU member countries.

I don’t know what you mean by saying ‘without input from EU countries’, but the extension was approved by the European Council.
If you want I can try to find an article about it. But the article will be in Russian.

 

[Treeshepherd]

However it now appears likely that the sanctions extension will happen at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on June 22 and without any debate.

That was from the Herald Sun article I linked above.