Category: Russia
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Monday, December 22, 2014
Why It's Way Too Early to Count Out Putin - and Russia / Companies / Russia
By: Money_Morning
Peter Krauth writes: Don't underestimate Vladimir Putin: he knows how to fight back.
And right now, that trait might be all that keeps Russia from a catastrophic collapse.
The facts on the ground in Russia are, at best, chaotic…
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Saturday, December 20, 2014
Ruble Takedown Exposes Cracks in Putin’s Defense / Politics / Russia
By: Mike_Whitney
Russian President Vladimir Putin suffered a stunning defeat on Tuesday when a US-backed plan to push down oil prices sent the ruble into freefall. Russia’s currency plunged 10 percent on Monday followed by an 11 percent drop on Tuesday reducing the ruble’s value by more than half in less than a year. The jarring slide was assisted by western sympathizers at Russia’s Central Bank who, earlier in the day, boosted interest rates from 10.5 percent to 17 percent to slow the decline. But the higher rates only intensified the outflow of capital which put the ruble into a tailspin forcing international banks to remove pricing and liquidity from the currency leading to the suspension of trade. According to Russia Today:
Saturday, December 20, 2014
The Link between the Ruble and Keynes / Currencies / Russia
By: Steve_H_Hanke
On March 3, 2014, the United States went to war with Russia. That’s when the U.S. first imposed sanctions. And, yes, sanctions are nothing more than war by non-military means. Then, on November 11 Russia committed a major misstep. It floated the ruble. Since then, the ruble hasn’t floated on a sea of tranquility. It has plunged in lockstep with oil — by about 25% and its volatility has soared to around 65%.
The ruble’s plunge means that Russian imports will be more expensive and exports more competitive. This combination will help keep Russia’s current account positive, which will offset some of Russia’s massive capital flight.
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Friday, December 19, 2014
Is Russia Being Driven Into the Arms of China? / Politics / Russia
By: GoldCore
The “isolation of Russia” idea is one which has been receiving a lot of traction of late. Russia’s recent economic woes have sometimes been covered with barely contained glee despite the hardships that average Russians may have to endure if the rouble continues to collapse … not to mention the inevitable geo-political backlash.
Russia has become isolated from its western neighbours on account of the putsch in Ukraine which led to the predominantly ethnically Russian Crimea seceding from Kiev through a democratic process.
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Friday, December 19, 2014
Putin's Kremlin Q&A Show / Politics / Russia
By: Andrew_McKillop
Not the BBC Version
This was billed as Vladimir Putin's end-of-year question and answer session for the press, pressure groups, the public, and anybody else who is interested in Russia. The BBC however, true to its role of unsinkable US aircraft carrier anchored near Calais, rivaling Israel's role in the so-called American "empire", treated Putin's Q & A session as a rather pathetic attempt to ignore the US-led attempt to destroy the Russian economy. The BBC screened only 15 minutes of Putin's conference, ignoring the other 2 hours of Q & A. BBC News TV had former UK ambassador to Russia, Andrew Wood, in its early-morning studios to proclaim Putin's death sentence.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Chaos Mounts in Russia. Here's What Investors Can Do… / Companies / Russia
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: The collapse in oil prices has exposed some vulnerable economies. All of them are dependent upon crude export sales to maintain even the appearance of a national budget.
As you might expect, every member of OPEC falls into this group, although Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates have sufficient reserves that will allow them to carry sizable budget deficits for some time.
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Wednesday, December 17, 2014
How to Profit From Russia's Stock Market Crash / Stock-Markets / Russia
By: Money_Morning
The collapse in oil prices has exposed some vulnerable economies. All of them are dependent upon crude export sales to maintain even the appearance of a national budget.
As you might expect, every member of OPEC falls into this group, although Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates have sufficient reserves that will allow them to carry sizable budget deficits for some time.
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Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Viewing Russia From the Inside / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: Last week I flew into Moscow, arriving at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 8. It gets dark in Moscow around that time, and the sun doesn't rise until about 10 a.m. at this time of the year — the so-called Black Days versus White Nights. For anyone used to life closer to the equator, this is unsettling. It is the first sign that you are not only in a foreign country, which I am used to, but also in a foreign environment. Yet as we drove toward downtown Moscow, well over an hour away, the traffic, the road work, were all commonplace. Moscow has three airports, and we flew into the farthest one from downtown, Domodedovo — the primary international airport. There is endless renovation going on in Moscow, and while it holds up traffic, it indicates that prosperity continues, at least in the capital.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Doug Casey on Russia and Russian Stocks / Stock-Markets / Russia
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno
Nick: Okay Doug, so looking around, what markets look cheap to you today?
Doug: I saw recently that many stocks in Greece are selling at around four times earnings. But I don’t know what the quality of their earnings are. Of course, the dividend yield on Greek stocks isn’t very high, and dividends are, I think, the best real indicator of how much free cash flow there actually is in a company.
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Tuesday, December 02, 2014
Russia's Sergey Lavrov on the Clash of Civilizations / Politics / Russia
By: BATR
"NATO is going beyond all borders. We are really disturbed over this barbaric action. We are outraged...and we call and demand an immediate investigation." - Sergey Lavrov
Since the Western Press has directed their wrath at Vladimir Putin as their latest villain, while his approval rate soars to 88% in Russia, most Americans are not familiar with Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov, much less know his public statements. Lavrov is a thoughtful contrast to the rigid and contemptuous foreign policy spokesmen's from the Soviet era. It is well worth the time to investigate the actual sentiments that Lavrov has expressed throughout his diplomatic career. An insight of the mindset that underpins his thinking is revealed over two years ago, in the Voltaire Network, which published Sergey Lavrov's account, On the Right Side of History and provided the following assessment.
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Thursday, November 20, 2014
Putin’s World: Why Russia’s Showdown with the West Will Worsen / Politics / Russia
By: John_Mauldin
Russia and its redoubtable president, Vladimir Putin, have been much in the news lately. The latest flurry came when Putin was taken out behind the woodshed at the G20 conference in the Philippines last weekend over his recent moves to inject more Russian troops and arms into Ukraine.
For today’s Outside the Box we have two pieces that deliver deeper insights into the situation with Russia and Putin. The first is from my good friend Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group and author of Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World. You probably caught my mention of Ian’s presentation at the institutional fund manager conference where we both spoke last weekend. He had some unsettling things to say about Russia; and so when he followed up with an email to me on Monday, I asked if he’d let me share the section on Russia with you. Understand, Ian is connected, and so what you’re about to be treated to here is analysis from way inside. (He’ll be presenting at our Strategic Investment Conference again next April, too.)
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Thursday, November 13, 2014
Rumors Swirl at the Kremlin - Struggle Over Russia's Interior Ministry Could Emerge / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
In recent weeks, rumors that Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev will be replaced have been circulating among Russian media and pundits who watch Moscow. Stratfor has been monitoring the Russian government's coherence and the strength of its leader, President Vladimir Putin, as the country faces a series of crises involving its faltering economy and tensions with the West over Ukraine. Although Kolokoltsev is of little consequence as a personality, the office he holds oversees one of the most powerful tools for anyone seeking political power in Russia: a significant part of the country's internal surveillance apparatus.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Russia's Central Bank Sets Ruble Free / Currencies / Russia
By: Pravda
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation canceled the corridor of the currency basket, as well as regular interventions at the boundaries of the corridor and beyond them, an official statement from the Bank said, TASS reports.
"The Bank of Russia, from November 10, 2014, abolished the acting mechanism of exchange rate policy, reversing the interval of admissible values of the bi-currency basket (operating range) and regular interventions at the boundaries of this range and beyond," the statement said.
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Thursday, October 09, 2014
Putin Seeks Solitude Amid Russia's Perfect Storm / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 62nd birthday Tuesday in a peculiar fashion: by himself in the Siberian forests. For the past few days, Putin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, has brushed off journalists' questions about why the president decided not to celebrate his birthday in Moscow or do other work as he has in previous years. This is just another odd piece to an increasingly complex puzzle surrounding the stability and future of the Russian president and his government.
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Wednesday, October 01, 2014
It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again as the Russian Ruble Crashes / Currencies / Russia
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: Battered by sanctions, the Russian ruble has fallen to historic lows against the U.S. dollar.
The last time the ruble slid this far was in the late 1990′s when I was still writing for an inside market publication called Russia Crisis Watch during theRussian financial crisis.
Three times a week Crisis would document the “real” condition of the Russian economy, while providing market intelligence from a network inside and outside the country.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014
How to Profit from the Russia Ukraine Conflict / Stock-Markets / Russia
By: Submissions
Ted Baumann writes: Russia has a history of sacrificing its own cities and people before giving in to the demands and confrontations of dissidents and aggressors. The situation is no different today. And for investors concerned with developing a fortified portfolio of diversified investments, it’s a situation you must pay attention to.
During 1941 to 1945, when it wore the mantle of the Soviet Union, Russia suffered almost 30,000,000 deaths — in combat, through Nazi atrocities and from civilian famine and disease. That was almost one-fifth of its pre-war population. The war was tilted so far out of Russia’s favor that at one point almost four-fifths of its European landmass was under Nazi control.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2014
What Putin Knows About Flight MH17 / Politics / Russia
By: Mike_Whitney
Putin Knows What Happened to MH17, But He's Not Saying--Yet ....
”We have repeatedly called on all parties to immediately stop the bloodshed and sit down at the negotiating table. We strongly believe that if military action in the East of Ukraine had not been renewed on the 28th of June, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened. However, no one has the right to use this tragedy to pursue their own political aims. Such events should unite and not divide people.”
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Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Will Putin Survive? / Politics / Russia
By: Andrew_McKillop
From Khruschev to Putin
The chief editor of STRATFOR, George Friedman in a strangely eccentric article titled 'Can Putin Survive?' tells us he can't survive, but also says: “And the West no matter how opposed some countries might be to a split with Putin must come to grips with how effective and rational he really is”.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Can Putin Survive? / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: There is a general view that Vladimir Putin governs the Russian Federation as a dictator, that he has defeated and intimidated his opponents and that he has marshaled a powerful threat to surrounding countries. This is a reasonable view, but perhaps it should be re-evaluated in the context of recent events.
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Here's How the U.S. Will Play the Russia-China Oil Deal / Politics / Russia
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: Pundits have been quick to label last week's mammoth gas deal between Russia and China as "historic."
That may be true. But the fact is there are a number of important elements in the $400 billion agreement that have yet to be decided.
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