Boris Nemtsov: Sechin demonstrates country and world scale of his inadequacy

Markets understood everything and reacted immediately.

Russia has faced a currency crisis, though oil prices have stopped falling, Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov wrote on his Facebook page.

“The ruble is sliding, though oil price has stopped dropping. The dollar costs nearly 42 rubles, the euro – 53 rubles. The annual devaluation is 25%, and gold and foreign exchange reserves have declined by 66 billion dollars. The Central Bank has only 214 billion of forex reserves. The rest is gold, the Reserve Fund and the National Wealth Fund,” Nemtsov thinks.

According to him, the ruble fall is caused by not only by oil, but also to the sanctions imposed by the US and the EU.

“It is due to them that the country lacks foreign currency, so its price is growing. Big companies need to pay western banks. The total debt is about $700bn. They need to pay about 100 billion during a year. Rosneft, for example, has to return 25 million. Where can they take the money from? They can only buy foreign currency in the domestic market. It weakens the ruble.

Oil official Sechin from St Petersburg contributed to the fall of the ruble. By saying that he needs 2 trillion rubles from the National Wealth Fund, he demonstrated the country and the world the scale of his inadequacy. Markets understood it and reacted immediately. Rating agencies hurry to downgrade Russia's rating. It accelerates the outflow of foreign currency and press on the ruble. To put it shortly, there's no Russia while Putin exists...”