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Russia's stricken currency drops to 2015 low amid oil price slump
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russia's battered ruble on Tuesday continued its slide on the back of low oil prices, reaching a new 2015 low against the dollar and dropping to below 80 against the euro.

The Russian currency stood on Tuesday at 72.85 against the dollar, down from 72.46 on Monday.

The ruble meanwhile stood at 80.02 against the euro, dropping below 80 for the first time since late August.

The slide in oil prices and Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis have pummeled the oil-dependent Russian economy in recent months.

At his annual presser earlier this month President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
assured the country could weather the headwinds, despite volatility in oil prices.

The ruble lost around half of its value in 2014 but recovered slightly as energy prices stabilized this year, allowing officials to claim the worst of the crisis had passed.

Posted by: Fred 2015-12-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=440299