Russia 'Defends' the Ruble? You Must be Joking

Russia's losing battle to shore up the ruble.

 Before we rotate out of the currency fixation we've had for the last few days, here's an interesting feature from Bloomberg I found illustrating the recent slide in the Russian ruble. Yes, I know, it's been doing the dive-bombing thing for a few months already. However, the recent price action is interesting insofar as the rhetoric has been cranked up by Putin and Co.

As you would expect, bluster about "punishing speculators" and so on have not done much to shore up the currency's value absent concrete action by the central bank. Here is the blurb:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried everything from selling dollars to threatening speculators in his bid to stem this year’s plunge in the ruble. None of it has worked.

The attached graph provides an up-close look at the ruble’s collapse over the past two months. It dropped 25 percent during that time to 53.40 rubles per dollar, extending this year’s slide to 38 percent. The only currency in the world that’s fallen more is that of Ukraine, the country where all of Putin’s financial troubles began when his troops invaded the Crimea peninsula in March.

12/11 UPDATE: Another interest rate hike came today to shore up the currency.

12/12 UPDATE: To no one's real surprise, the ruble has fallen to new record lows despite this move.