I have been reading about the financial problems that have popped up in Russia. It seems to be rapidly accelerating since the cost of oil has dropped the last few weeks. I found this article a bit ago and the second on Zerohedge earlier today.

http://fortune.com/2014/12/15/the-ru...d-for-you-too/

The ruble's collapse is disastrous for Putin - and bad for you too


A financial crisis would make the Kremlin more unpredictable, wreck western banks and heap misery on the Russian people.

Russia’s ruble is melting down faster than you can say “Vladimir Vladimirovich”. That’s nothing short of disastrous for him–but it ain’t good for you either.

The ruble fell a jaw-dropping 11% against the dollar Monday. Even when seen in the context of the dollar routing all emerging market currencies (Brazil’s real fell 1.2% and South Africa’s rand 1.5%), a move like that is straight out of the Financial Crisis Handbook–completely unsustainable. Russia has seen nothing like it since it defaulted on its domestic debt in 1998.

Given President Vladimir Putin’s status as the West’s new bogeyman, the temptation to rejoice in the abrupt collapse of his regime’s economic clout is acute. Many will want to congratulate themselves at the success of economic sanctions, the aim of which was to punish Putin for his annexation of Crimea and its covert sponsorship of a civil war there.

They shouldn’t get carried away.

For one thing, it doesn’t make Russian concessions on Ukraine any more likely: the worse the economic pressure, the more the Kremlin’s propaganda will drum home the message that it is the Evil West, denying Russia its holy Crimean birthright, that is to blame. Opinion polls suggest that the vast majority of Russians still accept this version of events.

As such, Ukraine will remain a running sore, infecting both the European economy and, through it, the world’s. Moreover, Ukraine itself is on the verge of a default that will send shock waves through European and global financial markets, amplifying the effect.

A financial crisis in Russia would have much larger negative consequences than a Ukrainian one: western banks (mainly European ones) will have to write off more loans, western companies will have to write off investments. And that’s even if contagion doesn’t spread to other vulnerable emerging markets such as Indonesia or Brazil, both big recipients of western investment.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-1...st-rate-105-17

Russia Shocks With Emergency Rate Hike, Boosts Interest Rate From 10.5% To 17%

Following the biggest rout to the Ruble in ages, Russia - unlike Mario Draghi - instead of talking the talk decided to walk the bazooka walk and shocked all those long the USDRUB by unleashing an emergency rate hike (at 1 am in the morning) from the recently raised interest rate of 10.50% to... hold on to your hats... 17.00%, a 650 bps increase!

From the press release:






The Board of Directors of the Bank of Russia has decided to increase from December 16, 2014 the key rate to 17.00% per annum. This decision was driven by the need to limit significantly increased in recent devaluation and inflation risks.



In order to enhance the effectiveness of interest rate policy loans secured by non-marketable assets or guarantees for a period of 2 to 549 days from 16 December 2014 will be granted at a floating interest rate established at the level of the key rate of the Bank of Russia increased by 1.75 percentage points (Previously these loans for a period of 2 to 90 days, provided at a fixed rate).



In addition, to enhance the capacity of credit institutions to manage their own currency liquidity was decided to increase the maximum amount of funds to repurchase auctions in foreign currency for a period of 28 days from 1.5 to 5.0 billion. US dollars, as well as on similar operations for a period of 12 months on a weekly basis.



Both stories can be read completely at the link. Also, Zerohedge has several other stories that came up tonight I haven't had a chance to read yet.

To me this sounds a lot like the plan to destabilize Russia by drying up their income. Saudi's are going along with it.