I am guessing Moody’s hasn’t seen pictures of Putin riding atop black bears, or swimming with real sharks. Also, I am sure they haven’t seen Putin, bare chested, walking through fields of wheat in the Crimea.
“What once has been the country’s strongest asset, which was the government’s very strong financial position, is now under significant pressure,” Kristin Lindow, senior vice president at the credit-ratings company, said Wednesday in an interview in Moscow. “It doesn’t have a lot of debt, but it also is actively depleting its saving buffers, with very littleprospect in the medium term of rebuilding them.”
It’s worth noting, Russia can run dry of their reserves within two years.
To make up the bulk of next year’s shortfall, the Finance Ministry plans to use 2.1 trillion rubles from one of Russia’s two sovereign wealth funds, and may tap an additional 500 billion rubles from it if needed. Russia may exhaust both of its funds in 16 months to two years if it continues to rely on the $144.2 billion reserves without scaling back budget spending, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has warned.
Either oil has to skyrocket over the next two years, or Russia really needs a big war. Which do you think is most likely to occur?
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No tea leaves or fortune tellers needed to discern which of the two options Mr. Poutine (he is a closet Canadian you see) is preparing for. After all, the second option will force the first.
We are definitely being made to think (again) everything’s ok (again)
Just as bears’ geopolitical endgame is possibly starting to get going
(Haha) market didn’t want to go today (11am) Button pushed (noon)
Glad I didn’t see that movie Pan. Dodged a Hollywood bullet.
It’s interesting how riding atop black bears, swimming with real sharks, walking bare chested through fields of wheat, clearing brush on a ranch etc. seems to impress voters so much. If only such behaviors could fix economic & political problems, most countries in the world would be in far better shape.
I can recall Reagan clearing brush, riding his gelding in jodhpurs, W chainsawing creosote. I’m glad Obama doesn’t live on a ranch.
@FROG – you could easily insert different visuals for the current president of the United States and it would make sense as well no?
No. He has less than a 50% approval rating. So he’s not doing the sorts of things that impress the general population.
If it’s 1998 redux in two years we’ll have a drunken smiling bulbous nosed leader of the Soviet regime. Extra Yeltsin!
Putin cannot survive unless he is hugely popular.
I bet big war. For the win?