Like I said before, it's a complicated chess game. This is how you fuck over a country that plays outside the rules.
Bloomberg noted that the Ruble sank 19 percent today, "with a surprise interest-rate increase failing to stem a run on the currency.” At one point during the day, the ruble sank to 80 on the dollar.
"The White House also told Bloomberg that it will
not let up on sanctions that are partly influencing the ruble's instability, and it said that it intends to keep squeezing the Russian economy in a bid to get Russian president Vladimir Putin to pull back from its outposts in Ukraine. "The combination of a 49 percent plunge in oil prices and punitive sanctions by the U.S. and European Union has Russia grappling with its worst economic crisis since the 1998 default," Bloomberg wrote. "Russians are rushing to convert their money into dollars and buy durable goods amid concerns over hyperinflation and possible government currency controls and investors are withdrawing cash en masse.""
