The imposition of sanctions, the elimination of Russia from SWIFT, the European Union ban on Central Bank transactions are already starting to affect the country's economy.
In less than 24 hours after the US announced its sanctions and decision to remove Russia from SWIFT, the ruble plummeted.
Russia loses the value of the ruble
A ruble was worth around 1,2 cents or $ 0,012 until a few hours ago. Then, however, due to the worsening of the invasion of Ukraine and considering the response of the world, its value dropped.
Plunging by a staggering 21,29%, it is currently worth less than a penny at $ 0,009.
The broader impact of this fall in value is that the Central Bank has raised its key interest rates. Furthermore, as the value of the ruble plummets, Russia is taking steps to avoid hyperinflation.
And for the same reason, the Bank has raised interest rates on deposits to 20%, which is higher than most of Russia's stocks and shares.
Additionally, the Bank is examining ways to combat the ban and elimination from SWIFT.
Since the country cannot access any of its 14 trillion rubles and $ 1,1 trillion forex reserves, it is looking for another way. Encouraging investors with an interest rate of 20% is a step in that direction.
State Duma deputy of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) Nikolai Arefiev even said:
"If they block all the funds that are abroad, then the government will have no choice but to seize all the deposits of the population - there are about 60 trillion rubles - to get out of the situation"
So to save, as expected by FXEmpire, citizens have officially started turning to crypto. Coindesk - Kaiko data shows that over 1,5 billion Rubles worth of the Bitcoin pair in Rubles (here the quotation in real time) were traded in just 24 hours.
This volume is significantly higher than the $ 100 - $ 200 million average that the exchange testifies.
Russia continues to fight
Recently, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine called for every cryptocurrency exchange in the world to block and freeze the addresses of Russian and Belarusian politicians and citizens of Russia and "sabotage" them.
As the war deepens, the problems for Ukrainian and Russian citizens will increase as their lifestyle will become much more expensive. One can only pray that neither country's citizens end up paying a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread.
