More Bad News for Russia

[AkMike]

Russia’s ruble hits lowest level in a year!!   


By Associated Press December 30 at 6:13 AM


MOSCOW — The Russian ruble has hit its lowest level in a year against the dollar as the country’s economy is battered by a decline in the price of its oil exports.

The ruble dropped 1.3 percent in early morning trading on Wednesday to 73.2 rubles per dollar, its weakest level in about 12 months. The national currency lost 40 percent of its value last year and is now 20 percent down compared to a year ago.

The Russian economy has been suffering from the effects of Western economic sanctions and oil prices, the backbone of the country’s economy, which are currently hovering around 11-year lows.

The Russian economic development minister on Tuesday said the government is not so much concerned about the drop in the value of the ruble but rather its volatility, which makes budget planning difficult.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russias-ruble-reaching-record-high-lows/2015/12/30/50815dd4-aed4-11e5-b281-43c0b56f61fa_story.html

[AkMike]

The Ruble's down hill side.


 Ironic huh?


http://www.rferl.org/contentinfographics/the-rubles-downhill-ride/27460800.html

[mendeleyev]

Saw several signs yesterday with 70 being the current exchange rate.

[AkMike]

Mendy,
 I'm aware that the Moscow times have been sold as part of the majority ownership being Russian law. But it hasn't been updated or changed in several (5-6 )days. Are they done?

[alex330]

The recent success of Elon Musk and SpaceX has the Russian rocket industry scrambling to retain their share of the market.

"Competitors are stepping on our toes. Look at what billionaire Musk is doing with his projects. This is very interesting, well done, and we treat this work with respect."

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/12/30/SpaceX-stepping-on-toes-of-Russia-in-space-transport-market-official-says/4121451483607/

[mendeleyev]

Mike, they typically go into somewhat of a hibernation mode during the holidays. I'd expect to see limited publication from them until after the new old year on 14 January. They model their mainly English speaking readership, many of whom are traveling out of the country over the holidays.

[calmissile]

I have noticed very little news coming from Kiev Post over the past month or so.  I discovered that Union News still has daily postings about Ukraine.

[JayH]

I have noticed very little news coming from Kiev Post over the past month or so.  I discovered that Union News still has daily postings about Ukraine.

It really is bad news for Russia that Ukraine has a "free" media that can comment .Not to say  it is perfect situation--but it resembles reasonably closely western media that can be critical of government and individuals.
A couple of useful links-

http://ukrstream.tv/en/stream/ukraine_today

http://uatoday.tv/news

[AkMike]

More Crimean Power Shortages Likely With End Of Ukraine SuppliesResidents of Crimea face several more months of power shortages as Russia appears to have ended a contract with Ukraine to deliver electricity to the peninsula it annexed in 2014.[/size][/font]
[/size]A Kremlin spokesman said January 1 that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not renew the contract, which expired on New Year's day, as long as Kyiv keeps insisting on stipulating in the contract that the peninsula belongs to Ukraine."It can be assumed with a great degree of probability that the president will opt not to sign a contract on such terms," which would amount to an abnegation of Russia's annexation, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said. After a month of on-and-off electricity supplies from Ukraine due to sabotage of the high-voltage transmission lines feeding the peninsula, power to Crimea was officially cut off at midnight December 31 when the contract expired, Russian media reported.If Kyiv agrees to drop its demand for a clause designating Crimea as part of Ukraine, Peskov said, then Russia would be more inclined to renew the contract. To support the Kremlin's apparent decision not to renew the contract, Putin commissioned an opinion poll to determine whether Crimean residents want to be a part of Ukraine to continue getting power supplies from the Ukrainian company Ukrenegro.Russian news agencies reported on January 1 that over 90 percent of Crimeans said in the poll they would be against renewing the contract under those circumstances, even if it meant experiencing more minor disruptions in supply.The Kremlin said Putin will be guided by the results of the poll, which was conducted by a state-owned polling organization, in making a decision about the now-lapsed power supply contract with Ukraine.Without power from Ukraine, officials have warned that Crimeans will continue to experience at least minor electricity shortages and rolling blackouts for three or four months until Moscow can complete the construction of undersea cables transmitting more power from Russia.Russian Energy Minister Aleksander Novak has said the power shortages will be particularly acute at peak times of usage, when shortfalls of up to 10 percent are possible.
http://www.rferl.org/content/more-crimean-power-shortages-likely-with-end-of-ukraine-supplies-kremlin/27462455.html[/font]

[JayH]

The deaths of two senior Russian military officials within a week have touched off speculation in Russian social media about the toll Russia's wars are taking on its army, with some hints of a conspiracy to cover up the undeclared war on Ukraine, according to The Interpreter.
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Deaths of two senior Russian military chiefs touch off speculation

Lt. Gen. Igor Sergun, head of the GRU (military intelligence), reportedly died an "untimely" death at the age of 58 from unknown causes. Sergun, appointed by President Vladimir Putin, would have been central to the "hybrid war" against Ukraine that first involved the occupation and annexation of Crimea, then the invasion of Donbas, reads the article by The Interpreter.

Indeed, the accounts of GRU officers captured or killed on Ukrainian territory testify to the GRU's involvement.

The official who died on December 27, 2015,reportedly of heart attack, was Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Shushukin, deputy chief of staff of Russia's Airborne Division, who was said to have led the occupation of Crimea in February 2014.

The claim of Shushukin's role in Crimea were covered mainly by the Ukrainian and alternative Russian-language media.

His death was confirmed with a condolence notice on the web site of the Army General V.F. Margelov Ryazan Higher Airborne Command Academy, of which he had been a graduate, and reportedly on a YouTube post by the Academy.


Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/world/1229298-deaths-of-two-senior-russian-military-chiefs-touch-off-speculation.html

[JayH]

Is it possible that the explanation is as simple as this?


Troubling questions about Putin: Is he sick? And is he getting rid of witnesses?

Of course, the two deaths may be a coincidence, but they are convenient and getting rid of the executors of regime policy has long been a tradition for the Soviet and Russian security services. They in this as in much else operate according to the principle “no person, no problem.” That Putin might do the same should not surprise anyone, Shkiryak says.


http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/01/05/two-troubling-questions-about-putin-is-he-sick-and-is-he-getting-rid-of-witnesses/#arvlbdata

[JayH]

Mr. Putin had to face such accusations at all shows that a new understanding about Russia is taking hold: Russia is a mafia state — not only because it is run like the mafia, but also because it is run by organized crime.

Putin’s Year in Scandals

Yet another investigation released last month revealed apparent links between the Russian prosecutor general and the country’s most notorious organized crime family. Such allegations have become so prominent in the public conversation lately, even in Russia, that they were raised with Mr. Putin on Dec. 17, during his highly scripted annual news conference.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/opinion/putins-year-in-scandals.html?_r=2&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2F

[AkMike]

Putin’s Year in Scandals
Masha Gessen JAN. 6, 2016

GOING into 2016, Vladimir V. Putin is a very different politician from the one he was a year ago. His most significant changes have little to do with what he has done in the last 12 months. Instead they were wrought by the justice systems of two foreign countries — Britain and Spain — and a slew of Russian and Western journalists and activists. Thanks to all these disparate efforts, there has emerged a vivid, comprehensive and, most important, public picture of allegations of corruption and connections to organized crime that in the past had been the province of rumors or maverick investigations publishers wouldn’t dare to print.


Starting in early 2015, there were the 34 days of hearings in London about the death of Alexander V. Litvinenko, the rogue Russian secret-police agent who died of polonium poisoning in England in 2006. The possibility that the Russian government and Mr. Putin himself may have been behind the murder had long been discussed by journalists and detailed in books, but it took almost a decade for it to be raised in a legal venue.

For the rest click

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/opinion/putins-year-in-scandals.html?_r=2

[JayH]

Oil prices fell for a fourth day on Thursday, lurching again to 12-year lows as new financial market tumult in China brought a $30 per barrel handle within view.

Oil has fallen every day this year, losing nearly 10 percent in a sudden dive that makes last year's Goldman Sachs warning of sub-$30 crude seem not so outlandish after all.


Oil fell below $33 a barrel

January 7, oil prices continued sliding, falling below $33 a barrel for the first time since April 2004
Oil fell below $33 a barrel for the first time since April 2004 because of investors’ concerns of record production and massive stockpiles of unwanted crude and refined products, Reuters reports.
Brent fell more than 5 percent to a low of $32.16 before paring some of its losses. It stood down 3.4 percent at $33.07 at 1230 GMT.
U.S. crude futures hit a low of $32.10, their lowest since late 2003, before bouncing slightly to $32.72.

http://joinfo.com/business/1013314_oil-fell-below-33-a-barrel-for-the-first-time-since-april-2004.html

Oil down again to 12-year low; $30 handle looks more likely


"I wouldn't say it's a given right now that we will break below $30, but I think before the first quarter we will," said Doug King, fund manager in London for the $220 million Singapore-based Merchant Commodity Fund.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKBN0UL02520160107


Meanwhile--the Rouble continues it's downward spiral !!

1.00 USD   =   74.5824 RUB
US Dollar   ↔   Russian Ruble
1 USD = 74.5824 RUB   1 RUB = 0.0134080 USD
Convert again
RUB/USD thumbnailView Chart
Mid-market rates: 2016-01-09 01:53 UTC

[mendeleyev]

Had dinner recently with a Russian oil exec who was livid in his announcements that oil prices were manipulated by the USA in order to "destroy" Russia.

He asked what most Americans think of today's oil prices. I laughed and told him that the answer was obvious: Given the option that the typical American could pay $5 per gallon for gas that was carried on a ship from Saudi Arabia, or pay $2 per gallon from gas from North Dakota, what did he think Americans would rather do?

I also reminded him of how supply and demand works, especially in light that Russia is pumping out oil at record paces. Surprisingly, he understood little of how supply and demand impacts prices. I was flabbergasted at his ignorance in this regard (unless he was simply afraid to speak against state policy).

[krimster2]

have you ever gotten laid in Ukraine?  I did plenty of times, I guess my experience was different from yours to

[JayH]

have you ever gotten laid in Ukraine?  I did plenty of times, I guess my experience was different from yours to

Oh-- sounds like  you did spend time bending over to check if you were wearing socks!

[krimster2]

I guess you never went to the prostate clinic in Yalta either, best time I ever had, although I had trouble walking and urinating for a few days after, "Doctor" Yulia was well... never mind...

[JayH]

jay, nobody including me give's a rat's ass about you
you could choke to death on a chicken bone and I'd be more concerned about the chicken

Maybe you can get someone to lend you the $5K?
I am presuming you don''t have it"!!


Maybe as for some help from a few of the other fools who invent lies about others!

[krimster2]

http://www.topocr.com/jayh.JPG

duhhh- kwimster I wuz gonna bet chou dat Ukwane iz good and U say bad wordz about Ukwane

[fathertime]

http://www.topocr.com/jayh.JPG

duhhh- kwimster I wuz gonna bet chou dat Ukwane iz good and U say bad wordz about Ukwane

yup that sounds (and looks like) jayh. 


Fathertime! 

[krimster2]

I really do feel sorry for the guy, he has no clue how clueless he is, that's like double clueless

[jazztropy]

http://www.topocr.com/jayh.JPG

Wow!!

[krimster2]

I put Jay's actual picture from his profile on a dating site!

[ML]

Come on guys . . . let's class it up a bit.