The two main Russian stock indexes, RTS and Moex, have both plunged 30% today and are down close to 60% since October.
The RTS Index has fallen to 800 from close to 2000 and plunged as low as 600.
That’s the lowest it has seen since 2009, wiping out more than a decade of gains.
Oil (WTI) has jumped 7.5% to almost $100, gas is up close to 7% to $4.91, gold has gained 3.5% to $1,970.
European stocks are down 3.9% with the German DAX and French CAC both falling by about 4%.
Bitcoin fell to $34,300 before bouncing to $35,000 while ethereum has dived more than 10% to $2,350 from $2,700.
These market moves follow Russia’s move overnight towards a full scale invasion of Ukraine with Russian tanks entering Ukraine from all sides.
There are claims by Ukraine they’ve shot down about five Russian jets, which Russia of course denies.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv, but the city is largely intact with traffic jams developing as residents try to flee.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly stated any citizen that wants to fight will be armed.
“We will target strategic sectors of the Russian economy by blocking their access to technologies and markets that are key for Russia,” said Ursula von de Layon, the President of the European Commission, before adding:
“We will weaken Russia’s economic base and its capacity to modernize. In addition, we will freeze Russian assets in the European Union and stop the access of Russian banks to European financial markets.”
After denying and denying they plan an invasion, Russia has now undertaken what they call a military operation.
Suggestions are it won’t be a blitzkrieg with no reports yet that any city has fallen.
“Very upset by Putin’s decision to abandon the possibility of a peaceful solution to the dispute with Ukraine and go to war instead. This is a crime against the Ukrainian and Russian people. I want to wish everyone security, although I know that there will be no security. Glory to Ukraine,” ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in Russian according to a rough translation.
Boris Johnson is holding an emergency Cobra meeting with Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz to speak soon as the world wakes up to war against a free and democratic nation for the first time since 1939.
