I would love to see the ruble continue to slide but I think a lot of the current weakness is Israel reducing tension in the Middle East, making lower oil prices more likely. Russia lives and dies on oil production at this point. We need to crash the price of oil and sustain it at a low point to kill the Russian currency.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's often been said that russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

A gas station operated by gangsters masquerading as a country.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Did everything in Israel affect oil prices that much? Anecdotally I don't remember fuel prices shifting significantly, and looking at data it doesn't look like there was much of a response. Israel and its immediate surroundings aren't the big oil producers of the region. Those are all on the other side of the Arabian peninsula. The skirmish with Iran is the closest the whole situation has come to actually touching the oil countries, I think.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I think it is because this signals there will be no more weapon launches to/from Iran. Iranian oil infrastructure would be on the short list of additional targets. Plus there's always the risk of Iran closing the Persian Gulf.