As the international community tightened economic sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine, the blow to the Russian people is becoming a reality.
According to AFP and others on the 28th (local time), crowds have been flocking to find cash near ATMs in Russia since last weekend. The move is aimed at securing even a little more dollars for Russians with rubles.
A citizen in his 20s who was trying to use an ATM plane in Moscow, the Russian capital, complained. “The ATM is empty,” he told the BBC, “I’m afraid we’ll end up like North Korea or Iran.”
Another citizen also said, “If I can leave Russia now, I want to leave right away.” He said, The central bank raised the benchmark interest rate by 10.5 percentage points from 9.5 percent to 20.0 percentage points to defend the ruble plunge,
The value of rubles was around 95 rubles for $1 at the end of last year, but has now fallen to 75 rubles.
Earlier, the U.S. and the European Union agreed to exclude Russia from SWIFT settlement network and freeze Russia’s central bank’s foreign currency reserves as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Many Russians also have difficulty using public transportation. This is because linked banks such as Google Pay and Apple Pay which are main payment method to pay for transportation have halted services in Russia.
Russia’s Ministry of Public Transportation announced on the 28th that bus, subway, and tram fare payments may not be made due to the issue of state-run VTB banks subject to sanctions.
Initially, Russia showed confidence that it would be able to withstand Western economic sanctions for a considerable period of time. This is because Russia is the world’s fifth-largest foreign exchange holder with $630 billion.
However, it is difficult to take out and use a large amount of money immediately as it is located in central banks and commercial banks in major Western countries such as New York, London, England, and Berlin, Germany. In addition, analysts say that Russia’s central bank holds $12 billion, which is not as much as other central banks, and that the money will also be difficult to use as the U.S. Treasury Department sanctions the central bank.
