(AFP) Moscow – The Russian currency crashed to unprecedented lows Tuesday as it fell to 80 rubles to the dollar and 100 to the euro, testing Vladimir Putin's ability to ride out both the economic storm and his clash with the West.
Moscow's midnight move to raise interest rates to 17 percent failed to arrest the collapse of the ruble, with its slide only accelerating amid falling oil prices and Western sanctions over the Kremlin's support for the separatist insurgency in Ukraine. […]
"The government obviously is not keeping up with the negative consequences of political decisions," said Nikolai Petrov, a professor at the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics. "It is important not to allow the panic to spread among people."
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