Free Republic

Russia's central bank on Saturday said it has decided not to reopen stock market trading on the Moscow Exchange from March 14-18, with the exception of some non-open-market transactions and transactions using the SPFI payment system.

The overuse of financial sanctions risks much of the world losing confidence in the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.America cutting off Russia’s central bank from its U.S. dollar reserves could carry huge consequences that the D.C. establishment hasn’t considered.Here’s how the Wall Street Journal’s Jon Sindreu framed what happened: “After Moscow attacked Ukraine last week, the U.S. and its allies shut off the Russian central bank’s access to most of its $630 billion of foreign reserves. Weaponizing the monetary system against a Group-of-20 country will have lasting repercussions.”Reserves are globally accepted foreign currency that a foreign central bank holds...

After briefly rising above $40,000 this morning following the earlier (and now forgotten) report of some soothing words from Putin over the Ukraine conflict, Bitcoin and the broader crypto sector has slumped to session lows...... following a Reuters report that crypto firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are being flooded with requests to "liquidate billions of dollars of virtual currency" as Russians seek a safe haven for their fortunes.According to the report - which cites company executives and financial sources - some Russians are using cryptocurrency to "invest in real estate" in the UAE, while others want to use...

Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom, oil-producer Lukoil and leading bank Sberbank are all penny stocks based on their trading on the London Stock Exchange, as the local market was shut for a third day. Sberbank SBER, -87.43%, which had assets of over $500 billion at the end of 2021, was trading for 3 cents a share in afternoon action. The European Commission on Wednesday approved the resolution plan for its Croatian and Slovenian arms that will be sold. Its Austrian and Czech operations will be wound down, with depositors compensated up to €100,000. Lukoil LKOD, -96.03%, Gazprom OGZD, -84.21%, and Rosneft...

A smirking Vladimir Putin today ranted about the West's 'empire of lies' and banned Russians from sending their money abroad from midnight as worldwide sanctions caused the rouble to tumble and sparked a nationwide rush to withdraw cash. The currency sank 30 per cent in early trading before easing back to stand 20 per cent down. Its collapsing value risks wiping out the savings of ordinary Russians, who have been seen flocking to ATMs all over the country to empty their accounts, including in Putin's home city of St Petersburg. But as the Russian economy tanked, the Russian President took...