Russia’s ruble crashes, stock market closed as sanctions slam economy
President Vladimir Putin was due to a hold crisis talks with his top economic advisers after the ruble crashed to a record low against the US dollar, the central bank more than doubled interest rates, and the Moscow stock exchange was shuttered for the day.
The European subsidiary of Russia’s biggest bank was on the brink of collapse as savers rushed to withdraw their deposits. And economists warned that the Russian economy could shrink by 5%.
The ruble lost about 20% of its value to trade at 100 to the dollar at 6 a.m. ET after earlier plummeting as much as 40%. The start of trading on the Russian stock market was delayed, and then canceled entirely, according to a statement from the country’s central bank.
The latest barrage of sanctions came Saturday, when the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada said they would expel some Russian banks from SWIFT, a global financial messaging service, and “paralyze”…
