Russian Getting Ready For War???

[Lightspeed]

(17 December 2014, 18:08)NorthernRaider Wrote: Ok I am now OFFICIALLY baffled, the Ruble has nosed dived Again, Russian interest rates are rockets, fuel and food prices are going up fast sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo The Russians start PANIC BUYING..........Ok you say " So what" Well they DON'T appear to be buying FOOD

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...apses.html

So if you were a city slicker, looking for a fast buck, wouldn't you be tempted to have a flutter with client funds in the Russian economy? Promise of high returns for speculators...

[NorthernRaider]

That is a frightening concept, but quite a likely option maybe

[Barneyboy]

I don't get this ,why not food and fuel ,and bloody candles for Christ sake

[Devonian]

(16 December 2014, 07:26)River Song Wrote: That was a question not a statement.

BBC reports this morning (Tuesday 16th December) that Russian has increased its key interest rate from 10.5% to 17%. (6-1/2% in one move).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30490082

Also increasing ratcheting up of patriotism. Putin is increasingly blaming the West because of (a) sanctions and (b) the low cost of oil.

Couple this with the increasing 'testing' of our air-defences over the last few months and I am beginning to get increasingly edgy.

When the Russians get hungry they become desperate.

Time to check and double check your preps.

allons-y

Just giving this a bit more consideration and I know very well that this is completely off the wall and up there with the best conspiracy theories but what are the chances that the US is working hard to destabilise (rather than punish) Russia as Putin keeps telling everyone that they are.

After all:

1. Why at their recent meeting didn't OPEC agree to cut production to stop the oil price falling? http://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppo...ian-ruble/

2. Why has the US decided now, after 50 years, to normalise relations with Cuba? Possibly to remove one of Russia's closest allies???

[NorthernRaider]

Feasable I guess on TV some Republican politicians were saying they could stick it to Russia now using banks instead of bullets because the US was getting masses of frack gas and shale oil of its own.

[Steve]

My guess is that the Russians produce a lot of their own food, so they're panic-buying imported stuff while they can still afford it.

What puzzles me is why Saudi are crashing the Russian economy. They must have known it would happen, what do they have to gain from it ? Or, perhaps, they don't want it to happen but have no choice in order to keep their own country from revolt.

It's possible, also, that Saudi want to sell as much oil as possible while oil is still legal to sell - if climate change goes crazy there could be an immediate restriction on sales, this will cause massive problems for the worlds economies as much of the debt is "guaranteed" against oil that is still in the ground, known as a "Stranded Asset". The Saudis oil fields are able to pump very fast, in the past they have deliberately pumped slowly to keep the price up and preserve their supplies, but perhaps they have decided to sell it all while they can.

[Devonian]

(18 December 2014, 00:35)Steve Wrote: What puzzles me is why Saudi are crashing the Russian economy. They must have known it would happen, what do they have to gain from it ?

Maybe they are being encouraged to do so by a third party

[Steve]

(18 December 2014, 01:10)Devonian Wrote:

(18 December 2014, 00:35)Steve Wrote: What puzzles me is why Saudi are crashing the Russian economy. They must have known it would happen, what do they have to gain from it ?

Maybe they are being encouraged to do so by a third party

That had crossed my mind, especially when I remembered that Russia has recently signed an agreement with China to trade oil in currency other than the Dollar.

Saudi won't want a Dollar crash, as they have so many of them, but I'd have expected them to keep things stable as they quietly offloaded their Dollars for Gold ( or indeed for anything with a future ).

[NorthernRaider]

I thought it was OPEC who set the oil price and Saudi is one one player, the biggest yes but I thought they did not control the price. I say that because I remember Venezuala refusing to sell at the fixed rate for some reason a while back.

[Devonian]

Yes it's a group: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC

But Saudi is by far the biggest and most influential member, and the Saudi's are also heavily backed and supported by the US.

Venezuela and a couple of others wanted production to be cut at the last meeting as the low price is also hurting them economically, but it didn't happen.......