Russian Economy General News: #3

NEW DELHI, Dec. 11 - RIA Novosti. India is in agreement with the Russian Federation will produce on its territory Mi-17 and Ka-226T, and the cars of family "Kamov" will be produced up to 400 a year, told reporters on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

An agreement on the issue of helicopters was reached after talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who passed on Thursday.

"There are two contracts. One - Mi-17, in which they (Indian side) really need, and the second - the Ka-226T. It's a big contract to build on the territory of India" - Rogozin said. It is planned to produce annually about 400 pieces.

Deputy Prime Minister said that initially, when India announced a tender for the helicopters of this type, the main competitor of the Russian aircraft was a helicopter "Eurocopter". However, he said, due to the unique characteristics of the Ka-226 and special requests of the Indian side the tender was canceled and it was agreed on the deployment of India's production of Russian cars.

Rogozin said that the helicopter will be in the sea and the mountain modification.

http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20141211/1037744080.html

Austin wrote:Russian Corporate has to pay to external creditors ....basicly External Debt Repayment

magnumcromagnon wrote:

kvs wrote:They are indeed a collection of bubbleheads.   The gas supply from the Capsian Sea basin has been an epic disappointment after all the hype
during the 1990s.   Much like the oil prospects, e.g. Kashagan, which have been a flop.   The country with the most in gas reserves
with a Caspian Sea coastline is Iran and its reserves are in Persian Gulf along with those of Qatar.  Turkmenistan is the only other Caspian
option but its production has been allocated for China and it really cannot fill the EU's demand.  Azerbaijan is not really even worthy
of note.   This new project is just Nabucco rehashed and Nabucco flopped for the simple reason that it could not be filled with enough
gas to justify the massive cost.

But really, who gives a rat's a** about the EU.  Let them eat their own sh*t.  

Indeed, here's Pepe Escobar's take on the matter:

Russia, Turkey pivot across Eurasia
By Pepe Escobar

The latest, spectacular "Exit South Stream, Enter Turk Stream" Pipelinistan gambit will be sending big geopolitical shockwaves all across Eurasia for quite some time. This is what the New Great Game in Eurasia is all about.

In a nutshell, a few years ago Russia devised North Stream - fully operational - and South Stream - still a project - to bypass unreliable Ukraine as a gas transit nation. Now Russia devises a new sweet deal with Turkey to bypass the "non-constructive" (Putin’s words) approach of the European Commission (EC) concerning the European "Third Energy Package", which prohibits

one company from controlling the full cycle of extraction, transportation and sale of energy resources.

Background is essential to understand the current game. Already five years ago I was following in detail Pipelineistan’s ultimate opera - the war between rival pipelines South Stream and Nabucco. Nabucco eventually became road kill. South Stream may eventually be resurrected, but only if the EC comes to its senses (don’t bet on it.)

The 3,600 kilometer South Stream should be in place by 2016, branching out to Austria and the Balkans/Italy. Gazprom owns it with a 50% stake - along with Italy’s ENI (20%), French EDF (15%) and German Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF (15%). As it stands, these European energy majors are not exactly beaming - to say the least. For months, Gazprom and the EC were haggling about a solution, but in the end Brussels predictably succumbed to its own mediocrity - and relentless US pressure over weak-link and European Union member Bulgaria.

Russia still gets to build a pipeline under the Black Sea, but one now redirected to Turkey and, crucially, pumping the same amount of gas South Stream would. Not to mention Russia gets to build a new LNG (liquefied natural gas) central hub in the Mediterranean. Thus Gazprom has not spent US$5 billion in vain (finance, engineering costs). The redirection makes total business sense. Turkey is Gazprom’s second-biggest customer after Germany; much bigger than Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria combined.

Russia also advances a unified gas distribution network capable of delivering natural gas from anywhere in Russia to any hub alongside Russia’s borders.

And as if it was needed, Russia gets yet another graphic proof that its real growth market in the future is Asia, especially China - not a fearful, stagnated, austerity-devastated, politically paralyzed EU. The evolving Russia-China strategic partnership implies Russia as complementary to China, excelling in major infrastructure projects from building of dams to laying out pipelines. This is trans-Eurasia business with a sharp geopolitical reach and not subjected to ideology-drenched politics.

Russian "defeat"? Really?
Turkey also made a killing. It’s not only the deal with Gazprom; Moscow will build no less than Turkey’s entire nuclear industry, and there will be increased soft power interaction (more trade and tourism). Most of all, Turkey is now increasingly on the verge of becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO); Moscow is actively lobbying for it.

This means Turkey acceding to a privileged position as a major hub simultaneously in the Eurasian Economic Belt and of course the Chinese New Silk Road(s). The EU blocks Turkey? Turkey looks East. That’s Eurasian integration on the move.

Washington has tried very hard to create a New Berlin Wall from the Baltics to the Black Sea to "isolate" Russia. And yet Team "Don’t Do Stupid Stuff" in Washington never saw it coming - yet another Putin judo/chess/go counterpunch applied exactly across the Black Sea.

Asia Times Online has been reporting for years how Turkey’s key strategic imperative is to configure itself as the indispensable energy crossroads from East to West - transiting everything from Iraqi oil to Caspian Sea gas. Oil from Azerbaijan already transits Turkey via the Bill Clinton/Zbig Brzezinski-propelled BTC (Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan) pipeline. Turkey would also be the crossroads if a Trans-Caspian pipeline is ever built (slim chances as it stands), pumping natural gas from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, then transported to Turkey and finally Europe.

So what Putin’s judo/chess/go counterpunch accomplished with a single move is to have stupid EU sanctions once again hurt the EU. The German economy is already hurting badly because of lost Russia business.

The EC brilliant "strategy" revolves around the EU’s Third Energy Package, which requires that pipelines and the natural gas flowing inside them must be owned by separate companies. The target of this package has always been Gazprom - which owns pipelines in many Central and Eastern European nations. The target within the target has always been South Stream.

Now it’s up to Bulgaria and Hungary, which have always fought the EC "strategy", to explain the fiasco to their own populations, and to keep pressing Brussels; after all they are bound to lose a fortune, not to mention get no gas, with South Stream out of the picture. Bulgaria alone reportedly has lost more than 6,000 new jobs and over $3 billion of investment due to the loss of South Stream.

So here’s the bottom line; Russia sells even more gas - to Turkey; Turkey gets much-needed gas with a cool discount; and the EU, pressured by the Empire of Chaos, is reduced to dance, dance, dance like a bunch of headless chickens in dark Brussels corridors wondering what hit them. And while the Atlanticists are back to default mode - cooking up yet more sanctions - Russia is set to keep buying more and more gold.

Watch those spears
This is not the endgame - far from it. In the near future, many variables will intersect.

Ankara’s game may change - but that’s far from a given. President Recep Erdogan - the Sultan of Constantinople - has certainly identified a rival, Caliph Ibrahim of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh fame, trying to steal his mojo. Thus the sultan may flirt with mollifying his neo-Ottoman dreams and contemplate steering Turkey back to its previously ditched "zero problems with our neighbors" foreign policy doctrine.

Not so fast. Erdogan’s game so far was the same as that of the House of Saud and Qatar's House of Thani; get rid of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to allow an oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia and a gas pipeline from the South Pars/North Dome mega-field in Qatar. This pipeline would be Qatar-Iraq-Syria-Turkey, rivaling the already proposed, $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline. Final customers: the EU, of course, desperate in its "escape from Gazprom" offensive.

So what now? Will Erdogan abandon his "Assad must go" obsession? It’s too early to tell. The Turkish Foreign Ministry is spinning to the media that Washington and Ankara are about to agree on a no-fly zone along the Turkish-Syria border - even as the White House, earlier this week, insisted the idea had been scrapped.

The House of Saud is like a camel lost in the Arctic. The House of Saud’s lethal game in Syria always boiled down to regime change so that the Saudi-sponsored oil pipeline from Syria to Turkey might be built. Now the Saudis see Russia about to supply all of Turkey’s energy needs - and still be positioned to sell more gas to the EU in the near future. And Assad still won’t go.

But it is US neo-cons who are sharpening their poisonous spears with gusto. As soon as early 2015 there may be a Ukrainian Freedom Act in the US House of Representatives. Translation: Ukraine being dubbed a "major US non-NATO ally", which means, in practice, a virtual NATO annexation. Next step: more turbo-charged neo-con provocation of Russia.

A possible scenario is vassal/puppies such as Romania or Bulgaria, pressed by Washington, deciding to allow full access of NATO vessels into the Black Sea. Who cares that this would violate current Black Sea agreements that affect both Russia and Turkey?

And then there’s a dangerous Rumsfeldian "known unknown": how the fragile Balkans will feel subordinated to the whims of Ankara. As much as Brussels keeps Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia in a strait jacket, in energy terms they will start depending on Turkey’s goodwill.

For the moment, let’s appreciate the magnitude of the geopolitical shockwaves after Putin’s latest judo/chess/go combo. And get ready for another chapter of Russia’s "pivoting across Eurasia". Putin hits Delhi next weekend. Expect another geopolitical bombshell.

Russia, Turkey pivot across Eurasia

magnumcromagnon wrote:

kvs wrote:They are indeed a collection of bubbleheads.   The gas supply from the Capsian Sea basin has been an epic disappointment after all the hype
during the 1990s.   Much like the oil prospects, e.g. Kashagan, which have been a flop.   The country with the most in gas reserves
with a Caspian Sea coastline is Iran and its reserves are in Persian Gulf along with those of Qatar.  Turkmenistan is the only other Caspian
option but its production has been allocated for China and it really cannot fill the EU's demand.  Azerbaijan is not really even worthy
of note.   This new project is just Nabucco rehashed and Nabucco flopped for the simple reason that it could not be filled with enough
gas to justify the massive cost.

But really, who gives a rat's a** about the EU.  Let them eat their own sh*t.  

Indeed, here's Pepe Escobar's take on the matter:

Russia, Turkey pivot across Eurasia
By Pepe Escobar

The latest, spectacular "Exit South Stream, Enter Turk Stream" Pipelinistan gambit will be sending big geopolitical shockwaves all across Eurasia for quite some time. This is what the New Great Game in Eurasia is all about.

In a nutshell, a few years ago Russia devised North Stream - fully operational - and South Stream - still a project - to bypass unreliable Ukraine as a gas transit nation. Now Russia devises a new sweet deal with Turkey to bypass the "non-constructive" (Putin’s words) approach of the European Commission (EC) concerning the European "Third Energy Package", which prohibits

one company from controlling the full cycle of extraction, transportation and sale of energy resources.

Background is essential to understand the current game. Already five years ago I was following in detail Pipelineistan’s ultimate opera - the war between rival pipelines South Stream and Nabucco. Nabucco eventually became road kill. South Stream may eventually be resurrected, but only if the EC comes to its senses (don’t bet on it.)

The 3,600 kilometer South Stream should be in place by 2016, branching out to Austria and the Balkans/Italy. Gazprom owns it with a 50% stake - along with Italy’s ENI (20%), French EDF (15%) and German Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF (15%). As it stands, these European energy majors are not exactly beaming - to say the least. For months, Gazprom and the EC were haggling about a solution, but in the end Brussels predictably succumbed to its own mediocrity - and relentless US pressure over weak-link and European Union member Bulgaria.

Russia still gets to build a pipeline under the Black Sea, but one now redirected to Turkey and, crucially, pumping the same amount of gas South Stream would. Not to mention Russia gets to build a new LNG (liquefied natural gas) central hub in the Mediterranean. Thus Gazprom has not spent US$5 billion in vain (finance, engineering costs). The redirection makes total business sense. Turkey is Gazprom’s second-biggest customer after Germany; much bigger than Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria combined.

Russia also advances a unified gas distribution network capable of delivering natural gas from anywhere in Russia to any hub alongside Russia’s borders.

And as if it was needed, Russia gets yet another graphic proof that its real growth market in the future is Asia, especially China - not a fearful, stagnated, austerity-devastated, politically paralyzed EU. The evolving Russia-China strategic partnership implies Russia as complementary to China, excelling in major infrastructure projects from building of dams to laying out pipelines. This is trans-Eurasia business with a sharp geopolitical reach and not subjected to ideology-drenched politics.

Russian "defeat"? Really?
Turkey also made a killing. It’s not only the deal with Gazprom; Moscow will build no less than Turkey’s entire nuclear industry, and there will be increased soft power interaction (more trade and tourism). Most of all, Turkey is now increasingly on the verge of becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO); Moscow is actively lobbying for it.

This means Turkey acceding to a privileged position as a major hub simultaneously in the Eurasian Economic Belt and of course the Chinese New Silk Road(s). The EU blocks Turkey? Turkey looks East. That’s Eurasian integration on the move.

Washington has tried very hard to create a New Berlin Wall from the Baltics to the Black Sea to "isolate" Russia. And yet Team "Don’t Do Stupid Stuff" in Washington never saw it coming - yet another Putin judo/chess/go counterpunch applied exactly across the Black Sea.

Asia Times Online has been reporting for years how Turkey’s key strategic imperative is to configure itself as the indispensable energy crossroads from East to West - transiting everything from Iraqi oil to Caspian Sea gas. Oil from Azerbaijan already transits Turkey via the Bill Clinton/Zbig Brzezinski-propelled BTC (Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan) pipeline. Turkey would also be the crossroads if a Trans-Caspian pipeline is ever built (slim chances as it stands), pumping natural gas from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, then transported to Turkey and finally Europe.

So what Putin’s judo/chess/go counterpunch accomplished with a single move is to have stupid EU sanctions once again hurt the EU. The German economy is already hurting badly because of lost Russia business.

The EC brilliant "strategy" revolves around the EU’s Third Energy Package, which requires that pipelines and the natural gas flowing inside them must be owned by separate companies. The target of this package has always been Gazprom - which owns pipelines in many Central and Eastern European nations. The target within the target has always been South Stream.

Now it’s up to Bulgaria and Hungary, which have always fought the EC "strategy", to explain the fiasco to their own populations, and to keep pressing Brussels; after all they are bound to lose a fortune, not to mention get no gas, with South Stream out of the picture. Bulgaria alone reportedly has lost more than 6,000 new jobs and over $3 billion of investment due to the loss of South Stream.

So here’s the bottom line; Russia sells even more gas - to Turkey; Turkey gets much-needed gas with a cool discount; and the EU, pressured by the Empire of Chaos, is reduced to dance, dance, dance like a bunch of headless chickens in dark Brussels corridors wondering what hit them. And while the Atlanticists are back to default mode - cooking up yet more sanctions - Russia is set to keep buying more and more gold.

Watch those spears
This is not the endgame - far from it. In the near future, many variables will intersect.

Ankara’s game may change - but that’s far from a given. President Recep Erdogan - the Sultan of Constantinople - has certainly identified a rival, Caliph Ibrahim of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh fame, trying to steal his mojo. Thus the sultan may flirt with mollifying his neo-Ottoman dreams and contemplate steering Turkey back to its previously ditched "zero problems with our neighbors" foreign policy doctrine.

Not so fast. Erdogan’s game so far was the same as that of the House of Saud and Qatar's House of Thani; get rid of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to allow an oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia and a gas pipeline from the South Pars/North Dome mega-field in Qatar. This pipeline would be Qatar-Iraq-Syria-Turkey, rivaling the already proposed, $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline. Final customers: the EU, of course, desperate in its "escape from Gazprom" offensive.

So what now? Will Erdogan abandon his "Assad must go" obsession? It’s too early to tell. The Turkish Foreign Ministry is spinning to the media that Washington and Ankara are about to agree on a no-fly zone along the Turkish-Syria border - even as the White House, earlier this week, insisted the idea had been scrapped.

The House of Saud is like a camel lost in the Arctic. The House of Saud’s lethal game in Syria always boiled down to regime change so that the Saudi-sponsored oil pipeline from Syria to Turkey might be built. Now the Saudis see Russia about to supply all of Turkey’s energy needs - and still be positioned to sell more gas to the EU in the near future. And Assad still won’t go.

But it is US neo-cons who are sharpening their poisonous spears with gusto. As soon as early 2015 there may be a Ukrainian Freedom Act in the US House of Representatives. Translation: Ukraine being dubbed a "major US non-NATO ally", which means, in practice, a virtual NATO annexation. Next step: more turbo-charged neo-con provocation of Russia.

A possible scenario is vassal/puppies such as Romania or Bulgaria, pressed by Washington, deciding to allow full access of NATO vessels into the Black Sea. Who cares that this would violate current Black Sea agreements that affect both Russia and Turkey?

And then there’s a dangerous Rumsfeldian "known unknown": how the fragile Balkans will feel subordinated to the whims of Ankara. As much as Brussels keeps Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia in a strait jacket, in energy terms they will start depending on Turkey’s goodwill.

For the moment, let’s appreciate the magnitude of the geopolitical shockwaves after Putin’s latest judo/chess/go combo. And get ready for another chapter of Russia’s "pivoting across Eurasia". Putin hits Delhi next weekend. Expect another geopolitical bombshell.

Russia, Turkey pivot across Eurasia

Workers of Russian carmaker giant plan rally against job cuts, low salaries

An application for a rally on December 14, estimated at up to 1,000 people, has been submitted to Togliatti’s Mayoral Office

SAMARA, December 11. /TASS/. Workers of Russia’s AVTOVAZ car manufacturer based in Togliatti, the Samara region, plan a rally to protest against job cuts and low salaries, the chairman of the Edinstvo (Unity) independent trade union told Tass on Thursday.

An application for a rally on December 14, estimated at up to 1,000 people, has been submitted to Togliatti’s Mayoral Office. “If the AVTOVAZ leadership does not agree to negotiations after the December 14 meeting, we will possibly opt for a strike,” said Pyotr Zolotaryov.

The trade union has already urged the carmaker’s leadership to discuss the situation, but talks have failed to take place as of yet. An average salary as of the end of October was about 28,000 roubles (about $500 at the current exchange rate).

Addressing 6,000 workers of the car concern at the end of October, AVTOVAZ president Bo Andersson explained the situation, saying a salary system would replace the tariff system in car assembly works from January 2015, and a system of bonuses would be improved for the workers.

The carmaker’s budget for 2015 earmarks $36.5 million for social needs.

Earlier reports said there would be about 53,000 workers at the plant by the end of 2014 against 65,800 people last year. The number of foreign employees has also been cut from 11 to four.
http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766524

AlfaT8 wrote:

Workers of Russian carmaker giant plan rally against job cuts, low salaries

An application for a rally on December 14, estimated at up to 1,000 people, has been submitted to Togliatti’s Mayoral Office

SAMARA, December 11. /TASS/. Workers of Russia’s AVTOVAZ car manufacturer based in Togliatti, the Samara region, plan a rally to protest against job cuts and low salaries, the chairman of the Edinstvo (Unity) independent trade union told Tass on Thursday.

An application for a rally on December 14, estimated at up to 1,000 people, has been submitted to Togliatti’s Mayoral Office. “If the AVTOVAZ leadership does not agree to negotiations after the December 14 meeting, we will possibly opt for a strike,” said Pyotr Zolotaryov.

The trade union has already urged the carmaker’s leadership to discuss the situation, but talks have failed to take place as of yet. An average salary as of the end of October was about 28,000 roubles (about $500 at the current exchange rate).

Addressing 6,000 workers of the car concern at the end of October, AVTOVAZ president Bo Andersson explained the situation, saying a salary system would replace the tariff system in car assembly works from January 2015, and a system of bonuses would be improved for the workers.

The carmaker’s budget for 2015 earmarks $36.5 million for social needs.

Earlier reports said there would be about 53,000 workers at the plant by the end of 2014 against 65,800 people last year. The number of foreign employees has also been cut from 11 to four.
http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766524

What happened!?  

AlfaT8 wrote:Markets in Europe, America Surge on US Data, Asia Slid
Investors are cautious worldwide, with markets in Asia and Europe largely bearish, while the US is surging on optimistic macroeconomic data.

MOSCOW, December 11 (Sputnik) — Stock markets in the Asia-Pacific closed in the red zone today as Chinese debt concerns and lack of global demand for manufactured goods rendered investors bearish, while European stocks ended the day flat, shaking between gains and losses during the trading session on new ECB loans, and the US markets surged decisively on the optimistic retail sales and unemployment data......
http://sputniknews.com/business/20141211/1015746835.html

sepheronx wrote:Another proof CB is incompetent and hurting Russia: http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766516

The increase in interest is going to hurt business profits and will ultimately hurt small/med business. Ruble is free float, they shouldnt be doing this.

I think it is time to kick in CB's door.

Werewolf wrote:

sepheronx wrote:Another proof CB is incompetent and hurting Russia: http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766516

The increase in interest is going to hurt business profits and will ultimately hurt small/med business. Ruble is free float, they shouldnt be doing this.

I think it is time to kick in CB's door.

CB is not incompetent they are just not working in favor of Russia like it was writen into the constitution to undermine russia in the oligarch Jelzin era like this shit Bretton Woods bullshit was forced upon russia along with it.

sepheronx wrote:

Austin wrote:Russian Corporate has to pay to external creditors ....basicly External Debt Repayment

So debt repayment is now called capital outflow? Anyway, CB may be wrong on those numbers, since they been wrong on nearly everything else (CB managers all over the world (specially Japan atm) are incompetent. Russian CB not excluded. I think it is a wait and see.

sepheronx wrote:Another proof CB is incompetent and hurting Russia: http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766516

The increase in interest is going to hurt business profits and will ultimately hurt small/med business. Ruble is free float, they shouldnt be doing this.

I think it is time to kick in CB's door.

kvs wrote:

sepheronx wrote:Another proof CB is incompetent and hurting Russia: http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766516

The increase in interest is going to hurt business profits and will ultimately hurt small/med business. Ruble is free float, they shouldnt be doing this.

I think it is time to kick in CB's door.

The Duma needs to get involved.   The CBR needs to justify its interest rate and explain what definition of the CPI it is using.
What we have at the CBR is a bunch of monetarist monkeys who are acting as if the Russian economy is in the same regime
as Canada and the USA.   They are trying to prop up the exchange of the ruble via interest rates.   It will not work they way
they think.

Austin wrote:

Something is making the Rouble weaker and its not Oil and Sanction something more sinister.

.

sepheronx wrote:Another proof CB is incompetent and hurting Russia: http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766516

The increase in interest is going to hurt business profits and will ultimately hurt small/med business. Ruble is free float, they shouldnt be doing this.

I think it is time to kick in CB's door.

flamming_python wrote:

sepheronx wrote:Another proof CB is incompetent and hurting Russia: http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766516

The increase in interest is going to hurt business profits and will ultimately hurt small/med business. Ruble is free float, they shouldnt be doing this.

I think it is time to kick in CB's door.

Raising interest at this time is a wise move IMO

With the 30-40% devaluation of the rouble relative to the Dollar/Euro/Pound; there are no signs of panic in Russia, and no signs that anything has happened at all so far, other than one thing - the country is tipping into a spending spree (myself included). I already bought a 5.0 Surround Sound system, Yamaha Receiver/Amp, Projector and a whole bunch of smaller things from China. Now am looking into a Subwoofer, Fridge, Washing Machine maybe for the new flat I'll be moving into.

Anyone who's anyone anticipates that prices will soon grow; as the rouble's purchasing power has waned, imports are becoming more expensive as old stocks runs out and retail chains have to order in new stocks from abroad at higher prices; and soon domestic products which rely on imported parts will become more expensive too.
So instead of watching as their savings decrease in value; people are voting with their wallet and translating their depreciating, monetary assets into tangible assets and consumer goods - before they become more expensive.
This year's New Year's spending spree will be among the biggest in Russian history.

This spending spree is a boon to the retail sector and domestic producers; but only for a short while - once people have bought enough stuff the boom will be followed by a draught, and consumption of high-value consumer goods will decrease beyond their original levels.
Suffice to say this sort of behavior is really not all that healthy for the economy; that's to say hoarding of high-value items in anticipation of coming purchasing power erosions. The Central Bank by all appearances - wants to balance this out by encouraging people to save - hence the raising of interest rates.

There. Nothing conspiratorial about all this. Central Bank of Russia is not on the payroll of the CIA. It's just taking the decision it deems logical; and it has access to a lot more data and analysis than any of us.