Russia woke up to a financial shock on Monday as the rouble fell to an historic low against the dollar. <br /><br />Within the first minutes of trading Moscow’s stock markets lost around 9% of their value.<br /><br />It comes after Russian troops took de facto control of Ukraine’s Crimea region over the weekend. Foreign investors were quick to pull their money out of the country fearing a war and talk of international sanctions.<br /><br />Economists are predicting that this could tip the Russian economy into recession.<br /><br />In response Russia’s Central Bank announced an increase of interest rates by 1.5%. Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach told Reuters news agency that the ‘hysteria’ would pass, but admitted that relations with the European Union and the US would be ‘complicated’.<br /><br />The reverberations were also being felt in Frankfurt and elsewhere, as European shares were down by 1.7% in early trading.
