> Who is that? What can they do with the Ruble they buy?
I purchased Rubles to buy stocks in some Russian companies. Since they're very cheap right now, it's really betting on the russian economy recovering post-war.
I also thought now was a good time because large investors are being pushed out by the threat of government action if they don't, and threat of bad PR. So there are a lot of people selling large quantities at deep discounts.
The downside risk is that my investments are removed from me by russian government rules (nationalisation), by western sanctions forcing me to sell, or simply a collapse of the russian economy and hyperinflation. But I think it's worth that risk.
If you actually own stock and not just sitting on the cash, you'll be fine if you own income producing assets.
If you buy stock in, for example, a coal mine, and get annual dividends from operations equivalent to perhaps one rail car full of coal, "worth a couple grand $US in the 2020s", no matter what happens to currency values you'll still, in the very long run, average a dividend that boils down to being worth one rail car full of coal. For as long as people still buy coal, which is going to be more constant than short term political or economic turmoil, a rail car full of coal will always be worth about one months labor, no matter what numbers are used to value that labor. Might call that four thousand bucks, or an eighth of a million rubles, or now a quarter of a million rubles, or maybe a trillion rubles, but that stock will on average annually return about a month's labor.
I purchased Rubles to buy stocks in some Russian companies. Since they're very cheap right now, it's really betting on the russian economy recovering post-war.
I also thought now was a good time because large investors are being pushed out by the threat of government action if they don't, and threat of bad PR. So there are a lot of people selling large quantities at deep discounts.
The downside risk is that my investments are removed from me by russian government rules (nationalisation), by western sanctions forcing me to sell, or simply a collapse of the russian economy and hyperinflation. But I think it's worth that risk.