The Ruble Has Collapsed. Here's What It Means for Russia.

Russia’s currency collapsed after Western leaders announced unprecedented sanctions aimed at crippling Moscow, signaling an imminent crisis that experts say will deepen Russia’s isolation and fuel social discontent.

The Russian ruble has lost some 20 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar since Thursday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine. This means anyone holding the currency can now buy less with their money.

Over the weekend, Western countries announced a set of new sanctions to punish Russia for its unprovoked invasion of the sovereign nation, including banning some Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system and restricting the Russian central bank from using its $640 billion of foreign exchange and gold reserves to prop up the ruble.

The measures, deemed unprecedented by many experts, are expected to deal a strong blow to the Russian economy. Anxious Russians waited in long lines outside ATMs on Sunday, worried the country would run out of cash.

“Economy and life in Russia will never be the same again,” said Alexander Titov, a Russia historian with Queen’s University Belfast.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgma4k/russia-ruble-collapse-economy