#Russia: #Roublefalls back in volatile #trade after early surge

Russian currency is being hurt by falling oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine

The Russian currency is down some 40 per cent against the dollar this year.An employee uses a machine while counting Russian ruble banknotes at a private company’s office in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Photograph: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

A recovery in the rouble ran out of steam on Tuesday as oil prices slid, wiping out early gains driven by modest foreign-currency sales on the final day of trading before the New Year holidays... (Read more)

EXTERNAL EXPANSION LTD., www.externalexpansion.net

#Russia: #Russianeconomy falters in face of #westernsanctions

Kremlin flags tit-for-tat food import restrictions as boost for domestic agriculture and chance for Russians to eat home-grown produce

The lives of many Russians are beginning to change, as a combination of western sanctions over Ukraine, a ban on some food imports and falling oil prices weigh on an already weakened economy. More Russians are putting off expensive purchases, adapting travel plans and changing grocery stores. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Trade is not usually brisk at Ala Smirnova’s corner shop sitting among apartment blocks in a suburb of north Moscow. It is mainly seen as a late-night, last resort for locals who have run out of essentials such as soap, beer or bread. That changed this week as word went round that the thinly stocked little store contained a trove of some of the last affordable grechka, or buckwheat, left in town... 

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#Iran to Capitalize on #Russia-West Standoff Over #Ukraine

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  President Vladimir Putin meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on September 13, 2013.
  Photo: Presidential Press Service / Wikimedia Commons

When President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani meet on Friday against the backdrop of Russia's slide into the abyss of Western sanctions, the two countries may find one another to be increasingly suitable economic allies... (Read more)

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