Thread by @faisalislam

NEW
Russian rouble getting crushed in currency exchange market - all time low of 106 roubles per dollar - this is the 20 year chart..

NEW Russian Central Bank raises key interest rates to 20% to contain rouble crash and impact on inflation

NEW UK, via Treasury, announces it is joining in policy of sanctioning Russian Central Bank … UK persons “prohibited” from transactions with it, & prevented from accessing sterling. Chancellor says shows “steadfast resolve in imposing highest costs on Russia”.

Full UK statement on prohibiting transactions with the RCB here from Chancellor, Bank of England says it welcomes the steps…

gov.uk/government/new…

Flipping the chart, Russian rouble worth less that a US cent, after a crash of 30-40% this morning, and the Russian Central Bank prohibited in the main markets from intervening, and instead putting up interest rates to 20%
Chart via @refinitiv

BLOG:

these Central Bank moves better thought of as a form of economic war, unprecedented between G20 nations, designed to provoke domestic instability as a price for invasion.

bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Interesting point, especially given Putin’s first PM’s comments yesterday…

https://twitter.com/jeremycliffe/status/1498198230844256257?s=21

Here are Kasyanov’s comments, from yesterday’s thread…

https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1498068136721010693?s=21

Moscow stock exchange shut down today, but London listed Sberbank and Gazprom losing half or more of value at some points this morning…

From our BBC monitoring colleagues…

https://twitter.com/francska1/status/1498166924663996416?s=21

NEW US Treasury: “Sovereign Transactions Directive will disrupt Russia’s attempts to prop up its rapidly depreciating currency by restricting global supplies of the rouble and access to reserves that Russia may try to exchange to support the rouble”…

Putin now addressing Russian people on the financial instability caused by the sanctions… also Russian Central Bank Governor acknowledges she has not been able to intervene on the currency markets due to new prohibitions…

https://twitter.com/francska1/status/1498282106899869700?s=21

Very big deal - Japan joins in sanctioning of the Russian Central Bank, after PM spoke to Zelensky… remember Japan holds 10% of Russias reserves, home to another reserve currency

https://twitter.com/jpn_pmo/status/1498265402459459591

Boat ban interesting - but not without its risks, SCF, literally SovComFlot, ran the very Russian LNG tanker which shipped a third of the nation’s daily gas supply from Louisiana, which I filmed for the #BBCNewsSix arriving at the Isle of Grain last month

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1498324731635843074?s=21

NEW: Another very big deal

Shell divests its Russian Sakhalin oil deal

https://twitter.com/kwasikwarteng/status/1498353588816564232?s=21

And the Chancellor on #BBCNewsSix says he is defending democracy with these extraordinary “incredibly severe” central bank sanctions… explicitly saying that the measures aim to “undermine the Putin regime” which is a phraseology heard elsewhere in Govt today…

Latest - significant hits in international markets to Russian assets.

In one day
💵 Rouble-$ down 25% in value, 1 rouble now worth less than nine-tenths of a US cent
📉 Biggest bank Sberbank lost 75% of its value in London listing
🛢 Biggest energy co Gazprom lost 53% of value

And techie - but another source of profound downward pressure for whenever the authorities allow the Moscow stock exchange to reopen…

https://twitter.com/schuldensuehner/status/1498388289899962372