By NewsLanc’s Russian commentator Slava Tsukerman
Russian Internet is full of news suggesting catastrophe in Russian economy. Here are some:
USD – Russian Ruble exchange rate today is 58. The value of the Ruble is almost half what it was less then a year ago. And it keeps falling down. Central Bank continues to spend its reserves, about one billion dollars a day, to support the Ruble.
Last week, the Russian stock market shares crashed by another 7%. Shares of AFK Sistema, the largest publicly traded diversified holding company in Russia, dropped another 40%.
According to the Watcom Group, since March attendance at stores and shopping centers in Russia dropped by almost 10% .
In Moscow construction works, expected to cost 50 billion rubles, were canceled.
Moscow hotels’ occupancy rate dropped to 60%.
Duma deputies have proposed to obligate the Russian businesses to sell at least 50% of foreign currency earnings from transactions with non-residents. The businessmen will have to convert the currency to rubles within seven working days.
The state controlled Russian TV keeps telling the audience about overall success of Putin’s policy and growing respect, which Russia receives all over the World. Meanwhile the most of Internet sources reflect growing sense of panic.
Most of liberal economists believe that complete crash of Russian economy is inevitable. They differ only about the time when the crash is going to happen. Some think it will happened the coming year, some in two years, some think it will happen later. They all blame the situation on Putin’s policies.
Very typical is the article of businessmen and economist Slava Rabinovich in a democratic site Novoe Vremia . Slava Rabinovich writes:
“What happens? A gigantic financial catastrophe takes over Russia. It has just begun. It is the process of de-leveraging of the country.
“It is happening because President Putin, in his message to the Federal Assembly on December 4, explained that Russia is becoming (and will be) a fascist, neo-feudalistic country, incompatible with the capitalist financial markets. And it is not only me who think so (it would not be a disaster if I thought so and was wrong), all the world’s financial investors, both foreign and Russian, share this opinion.”
Why do they think so?
“Because Putin has outlined ‘not a step back’ policy after the annexation of the Crimea.
This is too similar to 1938 Nazi Germany policy, after the annexation of the Sudetenland. Investors know what will happen next.”
Pro-Putin and Russian nationalistic media blame all the problems in Russia, Ukraine and all over the world on United States. All 100% of these sources present the war in Ukraine as an act of American aggression against Russia. But last week a new mood began to appear in these publications. Unlike the optimistic propagandists on TV, some writers speak about “the American victory” in the war in Ukraine.
This week official Russian government sites published a translation of the Diana Johnstone article from American site Counterpunch.org entitled “Washington’s Frozen War Against Russia”. Russians added a sub-title: “America reached its aim in Ukraine.”
Here is an excerpt from the article:
“For over a year, the United States has played out a scenario designed to (1) reassert U.S. control over Europe by blocking E.U. trade with Russia, (2) bankrupt Russia, and (3) get rid of Vladimir Putin and replace him with an American puppet, like the late drunk, Boris Yeltsin.”
Some publications in Russian Internet even blame Putin’s government for helping Americans to ruin Russia. Below is a quote from an article of Maxim Bykov, entitled:
“Financial Maidan in Russia and liberal ‘mole’ in Central Bank”. This article was published not in some obscure Nationalistic paper, but in one of the most popular Russian web sites Regnum.ru. The writer accuses the functionaries of Putin’s Central Bank of being American spies and purposely ruining Russian economy:
“The work in the headquarters of our Western partners, aimed at destabilizing Russia, restarted with renewed vigor in these hot times. Foreign spies, as in 1905, 1917 and 1991, actively come out of the shadows.
“Persons of influence are openly blackmailed and the state stability of the Russian Federation is challenged. Western patrons ordered all hands on deck. Their names are legion.
“Putin is clearly troubled. In the speech to the Federal Assembly for the first time we’ve seen him so constrained. President’s sixth sense tells him that the western ‘mole’ is somewhere nearby. The ‘mole’s’ work is clearly visible: treason and sabotage triumph.“
The most pessimistic publication of this week is the article of the former Commander of Ukrainian Separatist army Igor Strelkov, reposted by several web sites. Strelkov practically accuses Putin of treason towards the Russian nationalistic cause. He predicts:
“This spring we’ll get:
1. The final destruction of Donbass, and well-deserved hatred of the entire population to the Commander in Chief (Strelkov means Putin) and to Russia as a whole.
2. Additional hundreds of thousands of refugees, who will be much harder to absorb in the time of the coming crisis.
3. A decisive and bloody attack of the Ukrainian troops, which certainly will follow in absence of the large-scale direct intervention of the Russian Armed Forces. The attack will lead to the rapid defeat of the demoralized militia, five to seven times inferior in number.
4. NATO troops have already entered the territory of Ukraine and they are threatening direct involvement (read – direct war) in the case of intervention of any Russian soldiers.
5. Complete demoralization of the Russian society by the Ukraine crisis and Russian inflation.
6. Russian patriotic forces will reach complete prostration, and will finally loose their faith in the Commander in Chief.”
