Russia's Actions Have Consequences

Well, Miniputin, don't say I didn't warn you, darling! The Russian stock market has been on a crash course since the ill-advised invasion of Georgia, and no end in sight now that commodities prices are beginning to moderate. The New York Times reported on 9/5/08 about it - the "summer sell-off" they called it. Some people may blow off a report in The New York Times because it's that "liberal" newspaper. But today none other than The Wall Street Journal reported on the Russian market crash - the CONTINUING Russian market crash, tee hee hee. I don't have a subscription to the online Wall Street Journal - I read it in the print edition at the office this morning. But Pravada speaks in the words of the Russians and THEY said it too! Decreasing oil prices destroy Russian stock market 10.09.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru The Russian stock market went lower than 1,400 points due to the reduction of the oil prices and the ongoing of outflow of capital, which investors currently conduct. Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin added more fuel to the fire when he said that Russia’s oil companies would not be provided with an additional reduction of tax burden. The RTS index dropped by 7.51 percent to 1,395.11 points. This level was previously reported in June 2006. MICEX index dropped by 9.08 percent to 1,158.07. The price of a barrel of oil reduced to $104.23, having lost $1.25 in comparison with Monday. Rosneft’s shares slipped by 9.54 percent, Gazprom – by 8.47, Lukoil – by 9.29 and Surgutneftegaz – by 6.16 percent. Ore-mining companies followed the oil sector. The shares of Norilsk Nickel reduced by 12,76 percent. Russia’s Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin said in Moscow during the annual Reuters Investment Summit that there would be no additional tax concessions made for oil companies in the nearest future because the concessions from 2009 would be enough. “As an economist, I can say that Russia has reached the line when we can not reduce taxes anymore. I hope the president will put an end to the tax debate in September,” Kudrin said. The opening of US stock exchanges exacerbated the situation on the Russian market even further. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 0.23 percent to 11483,95. Standard & Poor's 500 lost 0.55 percent and made up 1260,78 points. The positive effect from the news about the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lasted for only one day. It became clear to everyone that it was short-term news that would only give the market a short break. Market members paid attention to the general situation on the market, which remains negative.

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Tee hee hee. Just how many billions of foreign capital have fled the Russian markets, heh???

And darling Miniputin, don't say I didn't warn you when I did - quite clearly - about the folly of your actions. What was this I saw today at The New York Times? Oh my goddess - it's an article about how the Russian government's RECOGNITION of two break-away areas in Georgia, a sovereign state, have now given Russia's own break-away areas NEW HOPE. Gee whiz, who could have ever predicted that, heh?

“In the long term, they could have signed their own death warrant,” said Lawrence Scott Sheets, the Caucasus program director for the International Crisis Group, an independent organization that tries to prevent and resolve global conflicts. “It’s an abstraction now, but 20 years down the road, it won’t be such an abstraction.”

Moscow’s position is that South Ossetia and Abkhazia were extreme situations, in which decisions were driven by the threat to the lives of its citizens. Russian troops poured across the border early in August, after Georgian forces attacked civilian areas in the city of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, with rocket and artillery fire. [NOT TRUE - 43 people were killed in South Ossetian action BEFORE Russians rolled in and started targeting civilian populations OUTSIDE OF SOUTH OSSETIA.] Anyone who reads a newspaper or a non-biased source online knows for a fact that the Russians lied about the number of casualties used as an excuse for this invasion. And the separatists in the areas just itching to break away from Russia realize it too. Duh!

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To add yet more pain to the international humiliation being heaped upon Russian where it hurts much (their foreign reserves), the US Dollar is strengthening against both the Euro (chicken-sh*ts who could have but refused to give Russian a well-deserved spanking) and even more against the Ruble. Bwwwwwwaaaaaahhhhhhh!