Post: #51

I don't see this lasting too long or the sanctions being too strict, the Germans won't allow it.

Oil prices will go up inevitably.

I see this as an opportunity to buy in one of the Russia ETFs like ERUS or RBL.

Post: #52

(11-17-2014 09:41 AM)MichaelCorleone Wrote:  Great Bloomberg article on the price of oil and who benefits the most and who is hurt the most.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-16...power.html

It appears Vlad is going on the record, saying, in essence....I am not backing down in Ukraine and pretty much saying the partition of Eastern Ukraine is permanent (when he says he won't allow the rebels to be defeated)....so the sanctions will remain in place indefinitely....which means Ruble and Russian economy bye bye....

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-17...ebels.html

It is too bad and I feel very sad for the Russian people that they are going to go through so much economic pain because of this geopolitical stuff.

Same I have a lot of respect for the Russian people, very poorly misrepresented in the media. Most of them I met are genuinely solid.

Doesn't Russia have the largest reserves of back up U.S dollars. There was talk about this before the crisis started. On top of this the monopoly they hold over oil and gas for Europe.

On top of this, things were starting to improve in Russia.

Post: #53

(11-17-2014 12:07 PM)Constitution45 Wrote:  

(11-17-2014 09:41 AM)MichaelCorleone Wrote:  Great Bloomberg article on the price of oil and who benefits the most and who is hurt the most.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-16...power.html

It appears Vlad is going on the record, saying, in essence....I am not backing down in Ukraine and pretty much saying the partition of Eastern Ukraine is permanent (when he says he won't allow the rebels to be defeated)....so the sanctions will remain in place indefinitely....which means Ruble and Russian economy bye bye....

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-17...ebels.html

It is too bad and I feel very sad for the Russian people that they are going to go through so much economic pain because of this geopolitical stuff.

Same I have a lot of respect for the Russian people, very poorly misrepresented in the media. Most of them I met are genuinely solid.

Doesn't Russia have the largest reserves of back up U.S dollars. There was talk about this before the crisis started. On top of this the monopoly they hold over oil and gas for Europe.

On top of this, things were starting to improve in Russia.

Foreign usd reserves

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c...e_reserves

Post: #54

This thread needs to be moved to the everything else section.

It stopped being about travel to Russia a long time ago.

Post: #55

Was it ever about travel to Russia?? The title was about the Ruble's value against USD.

Post: #56

Are the sanctions against Russia and the deliberate driving down of oil prices nothing more than state sponsored financial terrorism? The people suffering in all this are not the people who have done anything to East Ukraine but rather regular Russian people who are being laid off and losing their savings, rapidly. We did this in Iraq ( I'm not comparing Saddam to Putin ) and the only people who suffered were the regular people whilst the B'athists inner circle were still driving round in their drop top Mercs and banging imported white sluts.

It seems that when our political leaders come on tv to proudly announce that sanctions are working that what they are not mentioning is that working means thousands out of work and facing real hardship.

I don't know, it doesn't sit easy with me.

Post: #57

@Ligurian Yes it's very unfortunate that these sanctions by USA/EU are not hurting the wealthy political Moscow/St Petersburg elite by one Iota. It's the middle classes and poor who will feel the brunt of the up coming financial hardship. The people at the top know that and to them this is very high stakes poker with people's lives as the chips

Post: #58

(11-19-2014 02:14 PM)Chengiz88 Wrote:  @Ligurian Yes it's very unfortunate that these sanctions by USA/EU are not hurting the wealthy political Moscow/St Petersburg elite by one Iota. It's the middle classes and poor who will feel the brunt of the up coming financial hardship. The people at the top know that and to them this is very high stakes poker with people's lives as the chips

It is actually hurting the elite, probably hurting them even more proportionally but the thing is they'll still be able to maintain their same lifestyle.

If a guy earning $1000 gets his wage cut to $500, he'll suffer, on the other hand lets say some elite loses half his net worth because of the sanctions, for example it goes down to 1 billion $ from 2 billion $, it'll hurt him as well, but he'll still be able roll in lambos and open champagnes every week.

Post: #59

PBOC and Super Mario decide to help Russia out. Commodities up and even RTS up...happy days!!

Post: #60

(11-22-2014 07:11 AM)Chengiz88 Wrote:  PBOC and Super Mario decide to help Russia out. Commodities up and even RTS up...happy days!!

Chengiz mind breaking that down a little for the less economically savvy? What's happened in the last 24houra?

Post: #61

(11-22-2014 08:58 AM)The Ligurian Wrote:  

(11-22-2014 07:11 AM)Chengiz88 Wrote:  PBOC and Super Mario decide to help Russia out. Commodities up and even RTS up...happy days!!

Chengiz mind breaking that down a little for the less economically savvy? What's happened in the last 24houra?

@Ligurian - Basically Mario Draghi aka Super Mario gave a statement that he would do whatever it takes to stoke inflation in the EU. Markets have taken this as a sign of QE (Some form of it) by the ECB and drove the euro lower against the US Dollar. This drove markets higher and then to really help the markets out. The Chinese central bank decided to cut interest rates. This liquidity injection really pushed commodities higher. As Russia is heavily commodity dependent it pushed the stock index there higher as well and the constituent shares.
Reality this is just another phase of the global currency wars, which the US Fed started.

Post: #62

I recouped most of my losses thanks to Lukoil, it has gained 12% this week.

Post: #63

@cimbomlubkk yea same with OGZD & ROSN I have recently bought in Russian stocks for the long game. My bread and butter is FX so a departure for me. If you have access to Bloomberg terminal check out the analyst forecasts. Will convince you to stick around.

Post: #64

(11-22-2014 02:29 PM)Chengiz88 Wrote:  @cimbomlubkk yea same with OGZD & ROSN I have recently bought in Russian stocks for the long game. My bread and butter is FX so a departure for me. If you have access to Bloomberg terminal check out the analyst forecasts. Will convince you to stick around.

I'm in Lukoil for the long haul, its a very good managed company, has increased its dividends every year since 1996. The fact of the matter is the likes of gazprom, lukoil will be around when Putin and Obama won't.

Post: #65

Interesting short article about Viktor Orban's stance in this. Note the pressure from the EU/US to tow the line including us black listing 6 government officials. Respect to Orban for putting his country first and not the anti-Russian agenda of Washington/Brussels.

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/World/201...th-Russia/

Post: #66

@Ligurian Former CEE and EE countries under pressure from NATO to distance themselves from Moscow. You can see it in the media/finance/banking etc there is an all out attack on Russia.

Post: #67

Yeah they're pushing a bear into a corner and then prodding it with a stick. Eventually the bear is gonna get pissed and respond. If oil prices continue to fall and Putin starts taking flack at home over the worsening economy he's gonna have to start swinging some haymakers at some people.

Post: #68

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/2...mir-putins

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21...rsc=dg%7Ca

Post: #69

Russia needs to diversify their economy some more, invest and put stakes in South America, Africa, Asia is already heavily interested in Russia's far East, but we are so far removed from that, so its not that often discussed in the mainstream. Neo Cons and liberals for a very long time have been fantasising about the "end of Russia" but I think a lot of perceptions about the country, even around academic circles are misunderstood.

I will be interested in seeing how the relations between Orban's Hungary and Serbia play out with the Eu and Russia in the future. I think in the next ten years, this can be a very divisive issue with European countries in general.

Post: #70

Check out this Moscow Hostel!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/reales...html?_r=0#

http://www.highlevelhostel.ru/

https://www.facebook.com/hlhostel

Post: #71

(11-26-2014 12:34 PM)The_CEO Wrote:  Check out this Moscow Hostel!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/reales...html?_r=0#

http://www.highlevelhostel.ru/

https://www.facebook.com/hlhostel

Great article. I remember seeing a similar situation where 60 Minutes showed almost 1/2 the skyscrapers in Shanghai were empty. Basically these are all "make work" projects, hence a Hostel inside a new building.

The feedback I'm getting is that the sanctions are having a impact but not really hurting Putin strong support.... yet.

My girl sent me text the other day how expensive things are getting. It used to 1 to 25 only 2 years and ago and now it's almost 50 to 1 for the US dollar.
She is actually delaying her iPhone 6 purchase due this crisis. LOL

Post: #72

(11-26-2014 01:13 PM)rishboy77 Wrote:  

(11-26-2014 12:34 PM)The_CEO Wrote:  Check out this Moscow Hostel!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/reales...html?_r=0#

http://www.highlevelhostel.ru/

https://www.facebook.com/hlhostel

Great article. I remember seeing a similar situation where 60 Minutes showed almost 1/2 the skyscrapers in Shanghai were empty. Basically these are all "make work" projects, hence a Hostel inside a new building.

The feedback I'm getting is that the sanctions are having a impact but not really hurting Putin strong support.... yet.

My girl sent me text the other day how expensive things are getting. It used to 1 to 25 only 2 years and ago and now it's almost 50 to 1 for the US dollar.
She is actually delaying her iPhone 6 purchase due this crisis. LOL

I haven't noticed much inflation in the price of day-to-day goods, yet. And actually, people are going ahead and purchasing big dollar items now, before the anticipated inflation begins. So phones, cars, clothes etc. are being purchased now because the price is now on par or better than can be had if one travels abroad to purchase these items. Your girl needs to pick up that iphone before they price adjust it.

Post: #73

Those who had enough money to buy something like an iPhone were also the type who could take a package holiday or two each year. You'll probably see people choosing one or the other now - foreign goods, or foreign holidays. The middle class won't go hungry, they'll just have to be more choosy about how many luxury items they spend their money on.

Post: #74

Hotel prices are dropping like crazy. I might actually consider going to Russia for fun this winter the way things are going.

Post: #75

Ruble just crashed even further to another ALL TIME LOW after the OPEC meeting.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-27...c-decision

Currently about 48.55 rubles to 1 USD