Putin and Russia are not healthy - a few facts

Under what metric are Putin and Russia “#winning” with the invasion into Crimea? The Russian Central Bank just raised interest rates 150 bps in response to weakness in the Ruble. The Ruble is now the worst performing currency in the world this year.

The Russian economy has been very weak already so a rise In interest rates will weaken it even more going forward. This is all happening before the West imposes any sort of sanctions against the Russian government and those connected to Putin. Enormous sums of wealth from Russia have been laundered in the US and Europe so there are plenty of assets to go after. Even with all of the above it’s clear that Russia has lost a significant chunk of Ukraine from its influence. If there is a partition there will be a large portion of Ukraine that is western leaning. So, how is Russia better off now than they were three months ago? Putin must be playing some game of 3D chess.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/is-this-a-strong-position