'The damage is done': Russians face economic point of no return

[Uncle Joe]

As markets opened in a panic on Monday, many Russians rushed to local cashpoints in Moscow to retrieve their savings before the damage got any worse.

“It said they had dollars so I came here immediately,” said Alexei Presnyakov, 32, pointing to an app for Russia’s Tinkoff Bank, indicating he could withdraw hard currency. About 20 people were queued in line. “Yesterday [the rate] was 80 [to the dollar]. Today it’s 100. Or 150.”

“I just made a spontaneous decision today that I would ask [out of work] and go around until I took out all my money,” he said. “Before it was worth zero.”

Within minutes, however, the word traveled down the queue: the dollars were gone.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/28/the-damage-is-done-russians-face-economic-point-of-no-return

[Anon-C]

1. It's past the point of no return! -nt

[BeyondGeography]

2. Vlad's gift to his people after two years of COVID

This is required reading.

K&R

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. This can go away quickly....if the right people in Russia throw Putin out of office.

[dalton99a]

4. "We are no longer a member of the international community"

If there was shock on the streets, then the mood among the business community was even more dour. Several owners of mid-sized companies said that the invasion and subsequent isolation of Russia had made their businesses unprofitable overnight.

By the evening, the answer was even more draconian measures, including strict limits on transfers of money abroad. Those were announced after a funereal meeting between economic officials and Vladimir Putin, who declared that the sanctions had been imposed by the western “empire of lies”.

For many Russians, who felt themselves to be European by the food they ate and the way they lived, it’s clear that Monday marked a moment when the war came home.

“I think people are going to feel scared to spend money,” said the entrepreneur who owns restaurants and tourism companies. “We have left communism 30 years ago, we got accustomed to having a lot of comforts that are also seen in the West. All of that progress can be gone. We are no longer a member of the international community.”