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Pain on everyday russians that they start to then consider whether or not this is a good idea to have the administration in russia in place and vladimir putin. the reason why i say this, the ruble becomes front and center in currency. let s put it this way. precrisis last fall it cost you 70 rubles to buy one u.s. dollar. that was the exchange rate. earlier today it spiked up to around 110 rubles to buy that same u.s. dollar. now, in essence what that does is in an import/export centric economy like russia where they have a lot of commodity exports, right oil and gas, wheat and grains and that sort of thing but they have to buy everything else from the world, if everything else became 30% to 40% more expensive including those for everyday russians and everyday goods they use, that s where you start to really feel kind of the impact of things. so this is not just about, guys, the oligarchs but it is also very much about everyday ....
Course. there are more problems with russia s fragile economy. joining us from our sister network fox business s lauren simonetti. lauren? good to see you, leland. russia is in panic mode. its ruble is collapsing and moscow s solution to hike interest rates sharply, 17%, from 10 1/2% yesterday, a huge pop. the hike is encouraging investors to keep money in rubles. the problem is the hike is not collapsing the currency. it is in free fall. one dollar bought you 70 rubles. it brought brought you 35 by the end of the year. cheap oil, we ve been fracking here in the u.s., flooding the oil market with supply, choking russia and pushing it closer and closer to recession. now it be argued russia is hurting its own consumers with this rate hikes. higher rates make it more expensive to buy homes and cars. doesn t look like the situation will get better anytime soon. ....