Al-O-Meter
Well-Known Member
Since my last post on the Russian Ruble, the pace of collapse has accelerated. The currency lost 10% of its value in a single day. Russia has now halted all trades with foreign currencies until at least the end of the year.I believe credit should be given where credit is due. While it appears that Trump is going to make good on his promise to bring the war to a quick end, the table was set by the Biden Administration. Russia is in a world of hurt right now due to a policy announcement (direct threat) from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a part of the US Treasury Department.
Russia was keeping their economy afloat by skirting sanctions through China and India. On June 12, 2024, the OFAC made an announcement they’d seek to level “secondary sanctions” on any financial entity in any country found to be trading with Russia, and specifically in Rubles. At the time of the announcement, the Russian Ruble was trading at 84 to the dollar. In the six months since then, the Russia Ruble has lost 22% of its value. It has also lost about that much against the Chinese Yuan. Banks in China and India don’t want Rubles. It means the same amount of war now costs Russia a lot more to wage.
Smaller Chinese banks at risk from US secondary sanctions on Russia, warn experts
Experts say secondary sanctions are specifically levelled at Chinese banks that are believed to be helping Russia evade sanctionswww.thebanker.com
Kudos to whomever made that call over at OFAC. Trump may get all the credit for ending the war, but I see you.
Russian Central Bank Halts Currency Buying Until 2025 as Ruble Slides - The Moscow Times
Russia’s Central Bank said Wednesday it will suspend buying foreign currency on the domestic market for the rest of 2024 as the ruble continued sliding to its lowest levels since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The decision to halt foreign currency purchases from Thursday until Dec. 31 seeks to...
www.themoscowtimes.com
What this means is that we won't be getting updates about the value of the Ruble. That isn't the same as halting the collapse of the currency, but effectively halts the news about the collapse of the currency.