Saber rattling is keeping Russians distracted from the battered Ruble and RTSI –so far.

It was a brutal day for the Russian market today. The RTS index declined over 4% again in its second huge down day in a row after the government released a lower than expected Q2 GDP growth figure of 7.5% -down from 8.5% in Q1.

So far, the conflict in Georgia and US plans to put missiles in Poland are keeping the public from focusing solely on the economy. If the markets continue to crash, Putin will need to shoot more than just Tigers to keep his people distracted.

Andrew Barber
Director