You see, because of the sanctions the vast majority of Russians blame the US and the EU for what's happening. There's also a certain level of "here we go again" because in 1992, 1994 and 1998 the rouble lost more than half its value. People learned to deal with that, with power cuts, with no hot water for days at a time and are pretty resilient. The real tragedy is at the personal level, where savings are being wiped out. But to give you an idea of where the rouble is now and where it was:
Official 1990 rate - 0.60 roubles/dollar (black market rate was about 250)
Summer 1993 - 2,000 roubles/dollar
Summer 1994 - 4,000 roubles/dollar (lost half its value in one year)
Summer 1995 - 5,000 roubles/dollar
Summer 1998 - 7 roubles/dollar (revaluation of the currency at 1000 to 1, so really like 7000)
Summer 1998 - 18 roubles/dollar (happened over the course of two weeks in August)
Spring 2000 - 23 roubles/dollar
Since that time and before the last few weeks, the rouble was at 23-30 to the dollar, fluctuating. However, it dropped in the last few weeks and now it's in uncontrolled free fall - it dropped to 58 yesterday and today it went to 80 briefly before rallying to 72. There's no way you can have a savings account in that environment. Average people are just fucked.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
