Rouble trouble

Russia's embattled ruble extended a week of catastrophic losses by dropping 4% at the opening of trading in Moscow. The world's worst-performing currency along with the Ukrainian hryvnia, the ruble has lost more than 50% of its value this year. It traded at 70.7 per dollar this morning local time, or 4% lower than at closing yesterday. The ruble lost over 15% of its value this week despite a 6.5% interest rate hike by the Russian central bank. "This is a very dangerous situation, we are just a few away from a full-blown run on the banks," Russia's leading business daily Vedomosti said in an editorial today. "If one does not calm down the currency market right now, the banking system will need robust emergency care." The ruble has fallen sharply in recent weeks and is down more than 50% since January, due to sinking oil prices as well as the impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia's involvement in Ukraine's crisis. If this is what Putin's doing to Russia, I'm not surprised. It's just proving my point that Russia hasn't really changed that much since its communist days. Even Justin Bieber would be a better president than Putin.