The Russian ruble has dropped to a new low, battered by weak oil prices

[uhnope]

Source: US NEWS & WORLD REPORT / AP

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian ruble, battered by weak oil prices, on Monday fell to an all-time low against the euro and dropped to its lowest level in more than a year against the dollar.

The Central Bank set the official exchange rate at over 85 rubles to the euro on Monday. The national currency declined by 2 percent to 79.1 rubles to the dollar in Moscow, its lowest trading level since December 2014.

Oil, the mainstay of the Russian economy, recently plummeted to under $30 a barrel, a 13-year low. The ruble is also under pressure from economic sanctions that the West imposed on Russia for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis.

Russia is running a budget deficit of 3 percent of GDP this year, and the government is looking to cut 10 percent from the federal budget, which was drafted with oil prices of $50 a barrel in mind.

Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-01-18/russian-ruble-hits-a-year-low-as-oil-prices-weaken

[Bernin]

1. Guess

they are going to have to start selling high tech weapons; like we do.
Just what the world needs...

[stonecutter357]

2. they should try mushrooms and potatoes first.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

3. You don't think Russia sells high tech weapons?

That's startlingly out of touch!

They recently sold S-300 missiles to Iran:

Russian S-300 Missile Defense Systems To Be Dispatched To Iran In January: Report



That's just one instance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_largest_arms_exporters

[Codeine]

5. They're already one of the largest

arms exporters on the planet. I'm pretty sure they're only second to us.

[Odin2005]

4. So the Ruble has turned to rubble?

[Sunlei]

6. Got to develop another "mainstay of the Russian economy" Mr. Putin, oil is out.

[LiberalLovinLug]

7. I have absolutely no proof but

One wonders if the US and other allies, are calling in favours of Saudi Arabia, in exchange for arms sales and not bugging them about things like massive civil rights abuses, beheadings etc.. to pump out oil and deflate the prices to make Russia and Venezuela's economies suffer and their governments vulnerable.

[Igel]

8. There's proof.

But only of the observation that at least one does wonder about this. Many, actually.

Unlikely to be true, given the usual attitude--"I'm willing to hurt you, but not if it hurts me too much."

There's another attitude, along the lines of "I don't care if it destroys me, as long as I destroy you it's worth it. "...To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

People tend to be one or the other. Official US administrative views are typically the first, not the latter, because it also disrupts things here and makes the US economy vulnerable.

For example, one concern is that a lot of loans were taken out by energy-sector developers. Now that oil's in the toilet, those loans are very risky. Government oil revenues are going to drop. Unemployment in some sectors is rising. Stocks are taking a pounding.

It also weakens places like Sa'udiyya, which is not something "we" want.